Defenders of Sol
by Kyo Sa Nim Ivor
Summary: Centuries have past since the last Z fighter became deceased, leaving a weak and vulnerable world. What happens when the defenceless Earth suddenly becomes part of a colossal war that goes to the most monumental and ludicrous levels? May it happen or not, Earth is in desperate need for strong warriors.
1. Prologue

Defenders of Sol  
Prologue

**Note: **This is an OC centric story, taking place centuries after the events of Dragon Ball (Z), GT never happened in this universe. This story was inspired by my Dragon Ball role plays, and I decided to take action in writing this story since others have attempted to do it, but never seem to have finished it.

I have the most influence in writing this story for obvious reasons, but I would like to give credit to many of my fellow role players for giving me great ideas. I'll be using 2 characters (As of now) that aren't mine, only edited by me. So I'll display their username's bellow.

Zejuto: .zoltan

Zarx: Legendary Fanatic

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. They belong to Akira Toriyama. However, all of the original characters in this story belong to either me, or the selected ones above. Credit to my fellow role players for inspiring me to create characters based off your work.

**Prologue:**

6 centuries have come and passed since the death of Majin Boo. Rarely did anything threaten the Earth during this period of piece. within this time frame, those with the blood of the saiya-jin assumed that Earth was no longer a target in the galaxy. Overtime, human blood dominated the saiya-jin blood, along with the period of peace ultimately caused the descendants of the Z fighters to adapt to the regular life as a human. Once again, the military of various nations across the world dominated with silly weapons such as guns and artillery. Rarely would you find a man with superhuman powers at this point.

Eventually some nations were fed up with the lack of defence, relying on armies with unreliable weapons. So they went on the search for the Dragon Balls. They summoned the Dragon and wished for planet Vegeta to exist again along with some new inhabitants of the planet. Next, they wished for a large, heavily artistic structure that towered the newly formed saiya-jins, representing several rules to set a standard of morality. Fortunately, the Dragon possessed such power that was required to carry through with the 2 wishes. The saiya-jins were reborn once again, and they continued to live on for the next few centuries up until this day.

After committing to this wish, the humans requested for some saiya-jin families to travel to Earth, as anyone would expect, it meant for a substantial defence. The saiya-jins accepted the offer and thousands among the millions of saiya-jin families had travelled to Earth. Luckily, this rarely created conflict between the 2 races. Some saiya-jins breed with the humans, creating hybrids while others preferred to continue the pure bloods, simply out of pride of the race.

Everything seemed to have been moving smoothly up until a tyrannical government rose to the galactic level. Within only 2 decades, things turned from an oppressive government to a seemingly limitless galactic war between hundreds of planets and civilizations. Planet Vegeta has been involved for the past 4 years and still running. Earth is yet to be affected.

The saiya-jins on Earth are not enough to defend the planet. In fact, they have also adapted to the regular lifestyle. At this point, the planet is in desperation for fighters to defend the planet from the incoming galactic war.

Chapter 1 will be uploaded soon, since this prologue is short.


	2. Unknown Intentions

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 1: Unknown Intentions**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. They belong to Akira Toriyama. However, all of the original characters in this story belong to either me, or the selected ones above. Credit to my fellow role players for inspiring me to create characters based off your work.

A new character will be joining the fray! (That isn't mine)

Celeria: Juli-sama14

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**Chapter 1**

It was a bright, sunny day up in the north. The sky was clear of clouds, and heat struck the landscape. The water seemed calm, with small waves going In and out. Old mountains covered in oaks and spruce was visible in the distance, hiding behind clouds and fog. The lake didn't seem disturbed by anything in particular. The trees flowed with the wind, and animals continued their fight for survival. Everything was normal.

A young man was spotted on a rock, which stretched out into the lake from the mainland. He seemed to be sitting in a criss-crossed position, which contained the state of meditation. The man was tall, and appeared to have impressive muscular definition. His long, blonde hair nearly drenched in sweat from the heat of the day, was wrapped up in a ponytail. His eyes were closed, and he sat peacefully on the rocky ground, unmindful of the heat, or his constant sweating. He didn't seem to be susceptible to any disturbance.

This quickly changes though, as the young lad shot open an eye, revealing blue eyes that shined like the sky. However, it didn't seem too friendly. Within seconds, the tall being sat up and walked over into the main land, aiming to retrieve his clothing. He grabbed his red T shirt and pulled it over his head before stuffing his arms through the arm holes of his black, sleeveless black tae kwon do tunic. He wriggled his legs around to fix his white jogging pants and stretch his muscles. Lastly, he tied his black belt around his waist.

The martial artist walked up the shallow hill that lead up to his cottage, almost instinctive. He felt something was very wrong, with only little evidence, which happened to be an unfamiliar sound earlier. After walking up the deck, he opened the slide door into his home, which seemed cosy. A fireplace stood on the right side of the living room, and the couch remained on the left side with a table placed in front of it. The dining table stood on the end of the room, making room for up to 4 people to eat at once. His bedroom stood on the left side of the room upon entrance, beside the couch, while the bathroom remained on the other side of the couch. Paintings and other various artistic items claimed a spot in the room to his liking. Lastly, a doorway to the kitchen stood at the end of the room, which also contained the main entrance to his cottage.

Suspicion grew on the man, despite the fact that the room that displayed before him was indistinguishable to the last time he saw it. However, one room in the house remained untouched. So he travelled through his living room all the way to his bedroom. Upon entrance, his single bed and dresser was seen on the opposite side of where he stood, and a picture of his parents along with his youthful self were in that picture. He turned to his right to see a ladder leading up to a hatch into the attic. The curious one stormed up the ladder, and opened the hatch.

Once he entered the attic, he noticed the hatch lacking any resistance. This was his second piece of evidence, since he knew well that the hatch generally sticks to the borders of the opening when it's been unused for a certain amount of time. The young man continued to walk slowly across the floor, exploring the single room. It appeared to be normal, since the storage of his belongings were laid in boxes on the side.

Upon seeing the night table on the far left corner of the room, he gritted his teeth. He shot out of the attic, and onto the main deck. He looked around for any evidence of a burglar, footprints, droppings, anything. He was desperate.

He sighed in defeat, cursing under his breath. "_I live dozens of miles away from the nearest village, who the hell would come all the way here to take a damn object?" _He thought. Things didn't seem to make sense, and couldn't have been vaguer than it is now. Unfortunately for him, that item happened to be a souvenir, in memory of his parents, particularly his father. This event had kept the man lost in thought for several hours. He came up with theories and educated guesses, but nothing was really plausible. He figured that the item he had owned must hold some value to it, and it can be tracked down.

**-4 days later-**

Several miles to the southeast laid a community, particularly East city. This city held home to a famous school of martial arts – The Orin Temple. This school has changed drastically over the past centuries, especially its attitude. Students that are taught here are generally humble and peaceful, holding high standards of modesty. This school contained strong warriors, with a few of the best managing to reach what would be considered "Superhuman". Some students were also of saiya-jin blood, usually excelling under the teachings of the Orin temple. As of today, there remained 3 students training in the afterhours without supervision, all of which are humans.

"Yo, Kento. You still haven't hit me, today man."

"Ah, I haven't hit you, yet." The fighter retorted.

The fighters seemed to have similarities along with their differences. They're all bald, and contain 6 circles on their foreheads traditionally. Their uniforms were similar as well, still using the yellow and brown uniform for as long as the school has been around. Kento in particular, appeared to be average in height, with the fighter he's squaring off with being much taller. The last fighter stood on the sidelines, being the short one of the group.

"Aye, I've heard those words leave your mouth, 6 times now?" The tall one teased.

Kento ignored his words and charged straight at the opposing fighter, launching a side kick to his mid-section. The taller one side stepped the kick and countered with a reverse roundhouse kick to Kento's head, who dodged the incoming kick. Kento rushed in with a right hook to his left cheek, which missed by a hair. The tall fighter launched a barrage of straight punches directed at Kento, who was left defending himself by holding his forearms in front of his head. Eventually, the towering fighter launched an upset punch to Kento's stomach, causing the warrior to double over in response. He continued on by firing off a front kick to Kento's face.

He caught the leg, and the tall man gritted his teeth, "Damn It!"

Kento smiled and fired off a roundhouse kick to the tall man's head, causing him to get sent flying back several feet before landing on the ground.

"I told you I can land a hit, Lucas." Kento stated, folding his arms.

"Eh, that was impressive Kento. You managed to hit a guy who trained here for 11 years. That doesn't happen every day, now does it?" The short man complimented, walking out onto the middle of the training area.

Lucas stood up on his feet, wiping the dust off of his gi, "About time you hit me. Anyway, keep training with us after school and you'll become stronger than the rest of them, even the saiya-jins."

"Lucas, save it for yourself. You're one of the best around here, and I'd be kicking the dust if it weren't for people like you." Kento said, swinging his arms around.

"Hey, we don't need to kiss each other's asses all the time. It's more important to train than to talk." The short man spoke up, tightening his belt.

"Says the guy who sat by watching us fight." Lucas fired up, followed by laughter from Kento.

The smaller fighter scoffed, "Hey man, I'll be inclined to kick your ass if that's what you want…"

"Yo guys, Ryal's here." Kento spoke up, gesturing towards the stair steps that lead up the temple.

The same tall man with blonde hair appeared at the top of the staircase. A grin formed on his face as he dropped his bindle up against the wall. Ryal strolled over to the group, tightening his belt during the process.

"Kento, Lucas, Collin, how's it going?" He greeted, bowing to the 3.

Collin walked straight up to Ryal, halting right in front of him. Ryal seemed to be in the state of confusion, looking down at Collin, and vice versa.

"Can you just stop f***ing growing? What are you? 6'5?"

"6'4." Ryal corrected, walking past the short lad and over to the other 2 fighters.

"I have some stuff to tell you." Ryal informed, stopping in front of the 2.

"About what?" Lucas responded, a look of concern forming on his face. Kento stood silent, and he was all ears.

"A few days ago, a burglar robbed my house. All he did was take the orange ball, and then left. It's like the one that your instructor has on that stand over there." Ryal stated, pointing towards the side table next to the throne on the far side of the dojang. An orange ball with 6 stars sat on top of it, undisturbed by anything.

"Someone took your dragon ball? How did you get one?" Kento asked.

"What do you mean?" Ryal questioned, feeling as if he missed out on something.

"Your dragon ball, if it's like that orange ball up there, it's probably a dragon ball. Did it have stars in it?" Kento asked further, looking for answers.

"Yes."

"And somebody took it, right?"

"Yes."

"Somebody else is gonna come to take the dragon ball." Lucas announced, fully engaged into the conversation.

"Alright, hold on. What's a dragon ball?" Ryal asked the group.

"A dragon ball is a rare item. If you collect all 7 of the ones that exist here, on Earth, a huge dragon pops out and grants 2 wishes of your desire." Collin told Ryal, speaking in a ridiculous, mysterious accent.

"So essentially, if someone stole your dragon ball, chances are, they're going to try and steal all of the dragon balls, including this one here." Kento finished.

Ryal took a moment to take this in, unsure of what to say. He figured that if one wants to gather all the dragon balls, that individual would want to have 1 or 2 wishes granted. Knowing this, he's curious to find out the intentions of this burglar. Granted, if he had caught him earlier on, this would have been easier than it is now. For someone to grab a hold of all 7 of them can be a very serious deal. A wish to fulfill one's desires may affect everyone on an enormous scale.

"Ryal! Snap out of it!" Kento practically shouted, causing Ryal to snap out of his thoughts.

"S-sorry, I was just…"

"You were thinking, we know." Lucas interrupted.

"Anyway, is anyone up for some training?" Ryal asked the 3. Upon the message being sent, everyone took a step back. Nobody responded.

"Guys, I'll go easy. I promise."

"Come on man, your dad taught you Kamesennin's style. How the hell are we supposed to win?" Collin whined.

"That's an easy question, you don't." An unknown voice echoed through the temple. 3 people dressed in Crane style uniforms dropped down from the roof of the temple, all wearing the traditional formal outfits that Crane student's wear, which consisted of a long, green tunic with yellow sleeves. Each of them wore a cap with the crane's neck and head on top.

"You're from Tsurusennin's place! I thought your kind lives out close to West city!" Collin pointed out, astonished by their arrival.

"That's because we're here for that orange orb. Give it to us or suffer the consequences." The one in the middle insisted, pointing to the 6 star ball.

Immediately, Lucas stepped forward, placing himself in between the dragon ball and the unwanted guests. He glared at the 3, a hint of anger appearing on his face, "That is rightfully our master's, and it doesn't belong to you. Now please, leave." Lucas countered.

Without a word, the Crane student on the left raised a finger and fired a yellow beam, quickly making its way down to Lucas. He had no time to act, and the beam sliced through the warrior like paper. Lucas, fell to his knees and blood spilled out of his mouth. To maintain his own survival, he covered the hole his chest.

"LUCAS!" Collin shouted rushing over to the fallen fighter.

The Crane student to the right quickly dashed in, throwing a jaw breaking punch to Collin's cheek. This caused him to be sent flying through the school's walls, and instantly kill him.

"NOO!" Kento shouted. Right when he was about to rush over to unwanted guests, Ryal halted him by throwing his arm in front of him.

"Don't, just stay back." Ryal insisted with a deeper, more serious tone.

Things have gotten a lot worse, and Ryal didn't know how he would handle 3 superhuman fighters, but he needed to at least try. He just saw 2 of his friends die right in front of him, and the last thing he needed was to see Kento die in front of him. At this point, the pride of the Orin temple would be crushed by these 3 visitors if he were to fail.

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End of Chapter 1.


	3. A Battle for Vengeance

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 2: A Battle for Vengeance**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

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**Chapter 2**

Ryal entered his fighting stance, with his front hand open and protecting his mid-section, and his other hand retracted to his side, ready to strike. His feet were on a 45 degree angle towards the Crane fighters, and his knees were bent slightly.

The Crane fighters kept a close eye on Ryal, but they decided to refrain from attacking. Ryal himself didn't know why, but he paid no attention to the possibility. He will react when the first attack is thrown.

"Kento, whatever you do, do not attack. Please, let me handle this." Ryal insisted. Kento immediately nodded his head, a look of depression appearing on his face.

The closest Crane student was the first to attack. He launched at Ryal, firing off a knife hand front strike towards Ryal's neck, aiming for the quick kill. Immediately, Ryal countered by blocking the strike with his elbow. Ryal fired off a side kick to the man's ribcage. The hostile man was sent flying to temple's wall, located on the other side of the open space.

Suddenly, the 2 other Crane warriors charged straight at Ryal, each throwing a hook towards his face. Ryal used his elbows yet again to block the strikes headed for him. He then launched a turn side kick towards the man on Ryal's right. Unfortunately, he caught his leg. The other warrior fired a palm strike to Ryal's cheek, sending him flying through the wall.

Upon being launched through the wall, Ryal made contact with the ground which leads downhill. The single warrior rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill. After hitting the bottom, Ryal ached in pain, wincing as he got to his feet. He looked up the hill, only to see all of the other warriors sprinting and leaping down the hill after him. Ryal gritted his teeth, and threw arms in front of him, with the palms facing towards the enemy. After a brief moment, Ryal released a yellow energy wave out of each hand. The left energy wave landed beneath the Crane student on the left, while the right energy wave did the same to the Crane student on the right.

Both of the warriors threw their arms up to protect themselves from the blast, halting in the process. The last one persisted in charging Ryal, and jumped upwards. The man launched a flying side kick at Ryal, and the defending warrior jumped straight after the Crane warrior as well. He parried the kick with his knee, and Ryal landed an uppercut to his cheek, sending the man flying straight into the air.

Once Ryal landed back on his feet, he jumped straight up into the air, aiming to attack his opponent. However, the Crane student managed to recover quickly high in the air. Upon seeing Ryal jumping after him, he pointed his index finger down at him.

"Dodon pa!" The fighter shouted, shooting a yellow beam, which blasted its way down to Ryal. The attacking fighter failed to dodge the attack, and took the hit square in the chest area, causing him to fall straight to the ground. Ryal left a small crater on impact from where he landed.

When Ryal opened an eye, he saw 2 Crane students towering above him, with the last one floating in mid-air. Ryal figured he had no chance here. At this point, Ryal knew he couldn't defeat 3 of them. In fact, death seemed inevitable, so he continued to stare up, unwilling to make any comments.

"You're lucky." One of the Crane students said. Ryal, in reaction to hearing this, was stunned. He froze in place with a sharp eye on the one who made such a claim.

"_Why? Why not kill me now?" _He thought.

The 2 fighters immediately took off, and the one in mid-air simply flew after them. Ryal lifted his head up, only to see Kento standing at the hole in the wall that Ryal made. Ryal slowly climbed to his feet and wiped the dust off of his gi. He began looking around the area, seeing a few lit windows with people staring straight at him, holding cameras.

Kento dashed down the hill and straight over to Ryal. Surprisingly, Kento tackled Ryal to the ground, giving him a breathtaking hug, "I thought you were going to die, just like Collin and Lucas, I thought I was gonna be alone." He cried, sobbing into his shoulder.

"Everything is fine now." Ryal stated simply, completely confused and lost in thought. He couldn't understand why the Crane invaders just left, and why his friend was hugging him at the moment, crying his eyes out. Well, he knew why, but it seemed very off and unusual. His normal life was never like this. In fact, he hoped it was never like this.

Kento eventually ended his crying and let go of Ryal, getting onto his feet. He wiped a few tears away, and Ryal eventually got up too. The tall warrior sighed and began climbing up the hill without a word, trying to gather his thoughts. 2 of his friends were killed, and it placed him in a depressing mood. Fortunately for Ryal, death came easier to him as time came. At least with the numerous deaths that he himself would witness, can't be as worse at the last. Seeing Kento like this reminded him of his own reaction to his father's death, the first man to ever die in front of Ryal.

It was depressing, stressful, horrible, terrifying. To Ryal, it brought out all of mankind's worse traits. It was the very reason why he trains to this day. He trains in hopes of it never happening again, yet he failed again today, just like every bad day.

Ryal hated the fact that people can just come and murder his loved ones, and get away with it. Ryal failed to avenge his friends, and now the risk of those murderers making a wish to their own twisted desires has gotten worse, and the consequences are unfathomable.

"Ryal, I know you're not in the mood to talk, but I have a request." Kento called over to Ryal as he climbed up the hill. The tall man halted in his tracks, and turned his head around to see Kento standing at the bottom of the hill.

"I want you to go and avenge our friends. They're seeking for the dragon balls without fail, and they need to stop, and be brought to justice. I strongly believe you're the only one who could pull it off." Kento told him, with his tone much more serious, and it didn't sound like a request. To Ryal's ears, it was like an order.

Not only that, Kento was right. Ryal was probably the only one who can stop them from making any wishes. Who knows what they could be planning. It could possibly be world domination, or even galactic domination. That didn't matter though; the only thing that was important was to stop the Crane warriors from summoning the dragon.

Ryal simply nodded in response to Kento, "I will. I'll make damn sure I'll avenge our friends."

**-5 weeks later-**

Ryal found himself trekking across the grassy wastelands, which lacked trees for the most part. The landscape was made up of rocky plateaus and short grass. The place was vacant and cold, no animal would consider living in this environment. This didn't suit Ryal very well though, for the simple fact that he is tired and already ran out of food to eat. The nearest location for any food must have been hundreds of miles away.

The tall warrior wasn't so lucky after all. The young man figured he should have taken flight all the way to the West capitol.

Next thing Ryal knew, he walked around the corner of a tall plateau and discovered a small round house, which confused him to no end. Who in their right mind would live out in the wasteland like this? Water and food ceased to exist, and the temperature wasn't very relaxing either.

This may possibly mean food for Ryal if the home owner was kind and welcoming enough, but that's only a simple guest.

_**BANG!**_

Ryal was sent flying forward, and landed several feet away. The traveller picked his head off the ground and stared over his shoulder, seeing a woman standing from where he was earlier. She appeared to be standing at an average height with emerald green eyes and shoulder length black hair. She wore a black tank top and black jumpsuit pants much like Ryal's except a different colour. She also appeared to mechanical left arm, similar to the shape of her other arm, but it was naked. Many of the inner parts could be seen from the outside. The arm was also quite rusty; one could tell that it's battle torn.

Ryal jumped to his feet and dragged the dust off his clothing, staring straight at the stranger. "You're pretty strong if you managed to knock me down like that."

The woman ignored Ryal, crossing her arms, "Give me all of your belongings, or fight me."

At this point, Ryal began to put things together. She must have lived off taking people's valuables, but he might be able to escape. He no longer had any resources, so he might be able to get away safe and sound.

"I don't have anything; I already consumed all of my food." Ryal confessed, dropping his empty bindle in front of himself. The woman eyed the empty bindle, and grumbled in response. She looked back up at Ryal, and spoke words that rang in his eardrums over and over again.

"You managed to get up after that, fight me anyway."

Ryal simply grunted in defeat. Even though he was tired, he had to fight somebody who was capable of putting him down earlier. Things weren't looking very bright. Ryal reluctantly entered his fighting stance, waiting for the crazy bitch to make her move.

"Sheryl, I want you to remember that... especially after I kick your ass." She spat at him. She cracked her knuckles in preparation for her attack. Within a moment, she sprinted at Ryal, firing a front kick straight for his jaw.

Ryal managed to side step the attack and launch a straight punch for her jaw. She stumbled back slightly from the hit and directed a skull crushing crescent kick for his head. Ryal resulted in being tossed straight to the ground yet again.

Immediately, Ryal discovered that Sheryl was much stronger than the Crane students he fought earlier. In fact, it was beyond his mind to think of how she managed to get so strong.

Sheryl cockily placed her hands on her hips, staring down at Ryal like he was some sort of worthless slave, "Come on, get up you lazy ass." She ordered in a condescending tone. As reluctant as Ryal was to do so, he got up anyway, despite how much he was beginning to hate her.

Ryal folded his left hand over his right before shooting his palm towards Sheryl, _"Maybe an energy attack would surprise her." _He thought. Ryal shot a thick, yellow energy wave straight at the young woman.

Sheryl smirked and stuck her hands in front of herself, freezing the energy wave in place. After gaining full control of the energy blast, she redirected the wave into the air, like bouncing light off of mirrors.

Ryal gritted his teeth and immediately took off in a different direction, witnessing the lack of effect on this girl. Ryal eventually raced in and launched a flying side kick towards the side of Sheryl's head. To his surprise, the strike landed, and sent Sheryl flying into the wall of a plateau. The force was strong enough to cause the whole rock to come tumbling down on her. Ryal sighed in relief and turned around. He began to take off and avoid any further conflict, but the rumbling of rocks could already be heard, and the girl managed to bust out of the rock pile, landing on the ground only a few feet away from Ryal.

"I'm not finished yet." Sheryl fired up, going straight back into her fighting stance.

Ryal immediately shot his body around, glaring at Sheryl like she was some sort of deity. Ryal looked around for a tail, but it appears that she doesn't have one. Could this mean that Sheryl was a regular human being this this kind of strength?

Suddenly, the girl sprinted over to the young man, firing off an endless barrage of punches with unbelievable speed. Each and every one of the punches landed on Ryal. After beating the tar out of Ryal, she launched a finishing blow the sent Ryal flying for hundreds of yards before landing on the ground, leaving him completely unconscious.

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End of Chapter 2


	4. Shooting for the Moon

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 3: Shooting for the Moon**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

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**Chapter 3**

**-Flashback-**

The young lad trained outside in the bamboo forest as always. Ryal, the boy who strived to become stronger with each punch, kick, and technique continued his harsh daily routine. It always made him tired, exhausted, but its results were always absolutely astounding. Occasionally, he'll encounter a wonderful opportunity to become stronger, such as a large, wild animal trotting its own way through the forest, or his father taking his time to spar him.

The sun seemed to be setting at this moment, which reminded Ryal that he should be retiring for the night soon.

At this moment, Ryal found his father walking over to him, making him wonder what he was up to. Generally, he figured his father would command him to do some hard training routine, or perhaps even a sparring match. However, today seemed different in many ways. His father appeared to be dressed in casual clothing rather than his gi, which generally means he wasn't up to any training. To Ryal's guesses, he was going to tell him something.

"Ryal." The man called out to the boy, almost in a demanding tone. This was his usual self, so Ryal didn't mind the very outgoing, loud voice that always seemed to scare off other animals.

His father approached the young boy, who lost all of his will to train, and instead fixated his attention to his father, whom halted in front of him. "Son, can you describe in words, how much you desire this belt?" He questioned which the father had held high a black belt – something Ryal himself had wanted for several years since the beginning of his training. 5 years, it was since his first day of training. He still wore the same white belt he had all of those years ago. Of course Ryal wanted the ultimate achievement, it was his main goal. "Father, I want it of course. I mean a lot." Ryal stammered, unable to locate any correct vocabulary for such an astonishing thing.

Immediately, the man pulled away the belt like a jolt of lightning. He glared at Ryal, causing the boy to react by pouting his mouth slightly. He shamefully dragged his eyes towards the ground, despite the fact that he couldn't understand what he did wrong.

"Ryal, you _can't _describe how much you want this belt. I know you well enough." His father told him, causing the blonde lad to lift his head up to his father. Ryal knew where this is headed; he figured his father was going to give him one of his philosophies, which he clung to tightly. It was the leading cause of the young fighter to keep pushing forward, inspiring to increase the pinnacle of his abilities in every aspect.

"We both know well that actions speak more than words, right? Prove to me that you can achieve this belt, by putting 100 lbs onto your back, and run 20 laps around the mountain range." His father insisted. Ryal's jaw hit the floor upon receiving his instructions – "_20 laps? Maybe without 100 lbs!"_ the youthful fighter thought inside his young mind. He didn't move an inch, due to the fact that he was unable to comprehend what left his former master's mouth.

"Now get moving, prove to me that you can win this belt from my hands. I know you can do it Ryal, put your training to the test." He added, placing his hands firmly on his hips. Ryal simply rotated towards the 100 lbs backpack, filled with rocks and slowly slid it on, hunching his back from the weight of the sac. Within a moment, Ryal had taken off towards his destination.

**-3 hours later-**

The preteen had finally finished his 4th lap, jogging slowly and limply across the damp ground. His balance seemed to have decreased overtime, and he began having trouble just remaining on his feet. As anyone would expect, the fighter had fallen straight to the ground, after tripping over a tree branch. His breathing grew heavy and slow, the weight of his backpack began to crush him from above his backside. Sweat drenched from his neck, and he couldn't move a single muscle. The weight from his training gear pinned him against the ground.

Several minutes had gone by, and nothing seemed to have changed. Ryal's need for water grew, and he wondered whether or not if he would continue on living without his father or mother to be in sight. The boy sighed in defeat as he accepted defeat, and knew well that his chances for survival are thinning out. However, a familiar man came into view. He strolled over to the fallen warrior. Ryal's sight was blurry, so he couldn't make out who the man was.

It was his father, surprising Ryal since he failed to recognise his own dad. It doesn't matter though; he desperately required his help anyway, even though the man seemed to be disappointed.

"Why are you on the ground?" The large man questioned him, using his usual strict tone.

"Father… I can't.. move…. I think I'll die." The boy responded under his breath, with the weight causing his voice to be reduced to whispers.

"That's it?" The man spouted abruptly, rudely. This caused Ryal to be shocked. Did he not care? Was he disappointed to the point where he just didn't care anymore?

"You're going to die knowing that you didn't give it your all? Knowing that you haven't changed at all? Knowing that you didn't even _bother _trying to achieve a goal? Knowing that you haven't left a good impact on this rock?" The older, more experienced fighter boomed, much like how a parent accused their own son or daughter for doing something wrong.

"Father…" Ryal mumbled under his breath, still fully incapable of moving.

"I'll tell you what. The only way you'll _ever _achieve goals in your whole life is simple…" The mentor began, before pointing towards the night sky, particularly the moon. The young lad seemed to be somewhat dumbstruck, but he followed his father's finger, and stared straight up at the full moon, which was well lit. It even projected enough light to lead one through the forest.

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars… And what do you do if you miss? You shoot again." His father told him sternly as his finger was still pointed up at the bright moon. Ryal himself appeared to be somewhat confused, but his father's words had rung inside his head very clearly.

"_Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars…And what do you do if you miss? You shoot again."_

A grin suddenly formed on the boy's face. He prompted himself onto his elbows, and brought his left knee up from the ground. He placed his foot on the ground firmly, and pushed himself up. He'd finally managed to stand up on 2 feet again, and his back was upright.

"Thanks father, I needed that." Ryal spoke before taking off, a look of determination filling his face, along with his driven heart. The older warrior smiled proudly as he watches his son take off.

On that same day, Ryal had completed his 20 laps and achieved his black belt. The day was rough, but his commitment, perseverance and indomitable spirit led the boy through the day, along with the years that lies ahead of him.

**-Modern Day-**

Ryal's rusty eyelids slid open slowly. His back ached, and the young man was sore as hell. He found himself lying down on the rusty, rocky ground. His eyes drifted off towards the setting sun in the distance. He started collecting his thoughts, and memories began to resurface.

"_That girl, where is she?" _Was the first thought that entered his head. This caused the warrior to step up to his feet. He wiped the dust off of his gi, and he explored the area around him.

The young lad reached into his tunic to see if he still has his food that he managed to hide from the bandit from before. Unfortunately, it was gone. This caused Ryal to grit his teeth, and look around frantically in hopes of finding the culprit.

"You're up already, huh?" A feminine voice echoed through the wasteland. The man's head drifted off to the direction of the voice, looking up to see Sheryl standing on top of the plateaux. She took her last bite into an apple that she held in her hand, and chucked it away. Ryal glared at the woman standing from above, "That was my last apple, you damn bitch!" He spat.

Sheryl simply chuckled at his reaction, jumping down from the plateaux, "And what do you plan on doing? Win a fight against me? I'll be glad to hand you your ass again." She replied in that familiar condescending tone. She cracked the knuckles on her human arm using her mechanical arm, and walked over to the young man.

The blonde teen sighed, "I'll just have to fight you again. I need enough food get out of here, so don't be surprised if your fridge is empty after you wake up with a massive headache." Ryal stated, immediately entering his signature fighting stance.

Sheryl charged the warrior without a word, firing off a front kick to his face. Ryal jolted his head back before it landed, and fired up a front kick of his own. Sheryl was caught and sent flying back. Ryal shot forward and chased after the girl. The female bandit ricocheted off of her feet and leaped high into the air, and Ryal persisted after her. He jumped after her, aiming to land a head on strike.

Sheryl halted in mid-air and observed the determined fighter fly straight up at her. Once the 2 came close, they began trading a fast flurry of punches and kicks, each blocking and taking hits. Eventually, Sheryl hammered Ryal straight to the ground. She then maintained her position in flight and shot a thick, energy wave straight down at the fallen man. It landed on him directly as he hit the ground with a loud thud. An explosion took place, filling the air with smoke. Upon seeing this, Sheryl immediately began firing off several ki blasts down at Ryal, aiming to kill him with the amount she was giving out. She eventually halted her attacking and fell straight to the ground, landing on her feet at landing.

After the smoke disappeared, Ryal was found standing with several scratches and bruises, his gi was torn and ripped at certain areas. However, the persistent fighter continued to stand. The bandit gritted her teeth upon witnessing this, and charged at him again. Ryal inched his way forward and threw a punch towards the charging warrior, which Sheryl had blocked with her forearm before releasing a powerful side kick to his mid-section. Ryal was sent flying, and his body jolted in pain.

Suddenly, his father's words echoed throughout his thoughts as his body was tossed through the air _"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars…And what if you miss? You shoot again." _The fighter grinned as he remembered those words, with meaning that pushed him past the pinnacle of his physical abilities back all those years ago.

Ryal shot his hands forward, pushing himself high into the air. Once he reached sky high into the air, he folded his left hand over his right. He firmly positioned it to his right hip as he drifted off further into the air. He looked down at the small figure, taking in a good view of the landscape. The sun was visible in the distance, and appeared to be on the verge of disappearing below the horizon.

It was time to fire Ryal's own signature move – The Reddo Kyanon. It was his father's technique, which he based off of the Kamehameha wave.

Ryal's hands began to spark red, with lightning beginning to spark from his hands. A red aura formulated as Ryal kept his attention fixated on Sheryl, who stared at Ryal from below.

"Reddo… KYANON!" Ryal shouted with a war cry, shooting his palms forward. A large red ball of ki formed in front of his hands, and a thick, red energy wave fired out from the ki ball, directed towards the small figure. It hooked slightly as it made its way down to the bandit. Before the girl could react, she was engulfed by the attack.

A staggering amount of dust and smoke kicked up upon the impact of the wave, completely covering Sheryl within the explosion. Ryal took a deep breath before lowering himself to the ground. The smoke still seem to have remained in place, clearing out only slightly by the time the male fighter had landed on the rocky ground. After what seemed like an eternity, Sheryl was found on the ground, covered in scratches and bruises. The thief seemed like she was unable to move.

It looked like she was completely taken out from that previous move.

Ryal walked over to the fallen fighter, looking off to where the sun had once been. The sky seemed to be dark blue with only a tinge of orange above the horizon towards the far west. The moon was full and shined brighter with every second as the sky got darker. Ryal trailed his eyes to the ground to see the bandit lying on the ground, beaten. She lifted her head inches from the ground to get a look at Ryal, gritting her teeth in anger and hatred, unwilling to accept defeat. The young man just stared straight down at her, showing no changes in emotion as she struggled to get up. Sheryl eventually gave in and rested her head on the rocky ground, "Fine, I lost. Go ahead and kill me."

A nostalgic feeling rose out of the blue as those words flowed through his ears. He folded his arms over his chest as he gave her a shameful look, making her seem like sub human trash. "That's it?" Ryal spat.

He turned to face where the sun once lied, which remained only tinges of red. The red was soon replaced by a dark blue, revealing no more signs of the sun, "You're going to die knowing that you didn't give it your all? Knowing that you haven't changed for the good at all? Knowing that you didn't even _bother _trying to achieve a goal that is worthwhile? Knowing that you haven't left a good impact on this rock? It seems to me that you're nothing more than a redundant pest." Ryal exclaimed as he stared off in the distance. Sheryl scoffed at his words, showing signs of more hate and disgust.

"So if I were such a useless ass, why won't you kill me already?"

"That's simple. Everyone can make the choice to become better. Why waste a life when it has great potential?"

Sheryl was lost at that moment, dumbfounded by his lack of will to kill her, or the fact that he would rather stay instead of walk away. She did take whatever food sources he had, and attempted to kill him herself. Why he showed mercy was far beyond her knowledge.

"What can I do? What can possibly change me to become 'better' by your standards? I'm a bandit, and I'll always be a bandit. I refuse to change, because I like living the life of winning, and stealing from whoever crosses my eyes." She shot back.

Ryal turned his body towards her, staring straight down at her. His arms fell to his sides, and he let out a deep sigh, "I'll tell you what. Changing for the good is simple…" He began, before looking up to locate the bright, full moon that shined above the landscape; much like how it did back at the evening he received his black belt.

Ryal shot his arm up towards the sky, pointing his index finger towards the moon, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars… And what do you do if you miss? You shoot again."

The victorious warrior turned his back on her before taking off. Sheryl continued to lie down on the ground, watching the man disappear over the vast lands that lead to nameless places. She has yet to figure out the meaning of his words, which dwelled on her mind for the days to come.

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End of Chapter 3. Reviews are greatly appreciated.


	5. Arrival at West City

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 4: Arrival at West City**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

Ryal dragged his feet within the city limits by the sunrise. His eyes hung loose, his breaths were slow and weighted by the prolonged time of young man's consciousness, and his stomach grumbled frequently. The lad had arrived at West city at last, but his desires at the moment were different from when he set off from East city.

Ryal wondered what he needed to do first - eat or sleep? Who knows? His stomach craved for food, and his eyes drenched with exhaustion. The warrior looked left and right for anything useful, but he lacked the money to buy anything. It wasn't right to set a tent out in the middle of the city, so he figured he would go back.

That's when something caught his eye. Down the road he spotted a window shatter from a typical restaurant, and a few Crane students appeared to have walked out from the building, each carrying food and money. Ryal simply sighed, he knew he couldn't interfere. He needed rest before he can dive in for some action.

Suddenly, somebody from that same restaurant shouted some words at the Crane student's causing the robbers to turn around, and Ryal to investigate further. 2 figures walked straight out of the building, one a female, the other a male.

Ryal snuck closer to the scene, attempting to come in unnoticed. Curiosity grew on him, aiming to acquire information from these fighters, particularly the Crane students. He figured he would follow them to their own base once the conflict was over with. Something else also seemed to have caught the young man's eye – all of the fighters had long, spikey hair that seemed to have defied gravity. Does this mean all of those fighters were saiya-jins?

The martial artist knew it; these fighters were all saiya-jins hands down. They all appeared to have tails, either wrapped around their waists or let loose. Only one of them was female, and she was one of the civilians. Judging by Ryal's guess, the 2 citizens were ticked off from the thieves.

"Assholes, do you think you can just shatter glass all over our food and just walk away!?" The female civilian shouted, pointing her finger at the 3 burglars. The girl also seemed to be ready to pounce at the enemies, infuriated much like her companion.

"You carry the loot, we'll take em'." One of the Crane students stated, handing the one man the bags of cash before turning around. 2 of the remaining fighters took off their tunics and tossed them to the side, before entering their fighting stance. The last Crane student immediately took off at this moment. Ryal didn't move from his position upon seeing this, only taking note of where the burglar ran off too.

The civilians immediately took their fighting stances. The young warrior switched his attention to the 2 fighters closely, automatically taking in the fact that they appeared to be trained as well. The first one to charge was the male civilian, followed by the female shortly after.

"_They're fast." _Was the first thought that came to Ryal's mind as he observed the conflict. The Crane pupils each spread their own ways, with the girl taking off after one of the thieves while the male attacked the other. Each of them began trading punches and kicks, neither one seem to have dominated the fight. In fact, it seemed even to Ryal. Of course, their physical abilities were beyond human, and such a fight wouldn't be easy in his condition.

After dozens of adrenaline-filled seconds, one of the Crane fighters had disappeared into thin air, catching the girl off guard. She looked left and right, behind her, and even above herself. She couldn't detect the fast moving pupil of the Crane schools. Ryal himself had trouble trying to locate the vanished warrior.

Barely a moment later, the thief appeared in sight several feet behind the girl, charging straight at her. Upon seeing this, the exhausted man dove into the action, racing behind the burglar. Ryal mustered all of his strength and leaped into the air, knocking the Crane pupil straight into the walls of a building with a flying side kick. After landing, his breaths grew heavy. He was already tired, and couldn't afford to fight very long. He turned to the female fighter, noticing that she was short, but matured. Without time to spare, he spoke, "Keep your guard up, those people are known to kill their targets quickly." He informed her.

The petite fighter looked up at Ryal, with a smile forming on her face. "Thanks." She responded before turning her attention to her opponent, and charged straight at him.

The young man simply stared at her as she ran after the wicked fighter, unable to comprehend her words. As far as he was concerned, every saiya-jin he met would curse at him for interfering with what they would claim to be 'their business' even if they were at risk of death. Now she was an exception.

Ryal turned his attention to the other scramble of punches and kicks. The male civilian seemed to have everything under control, so things looked bright from what he was thinking.

Moments later, the girl had landed a skull-crushing kick to the one Crane student, who was sent flying over the street towards Ryal's direction. This made the martial artist smile, seeing an amazing opportunity to let loose his anger. He jumped a few feet into the air, positioning himself above the robber before stomping his foot onto the man's stomach onto the ground. He was smashed into the ground, with rocks piling up from the impact of his foot. Ryal had pinned him down with his foot, aiming to get an interrogation out of him.

"Where's your hideout?" Ryal demanded, pressing his foot harder onto the fallen man.

"North County Street, south of the main city highway at the casino." He broke, not sounding reluctant or hesitant to say so.

Ryal raised a brow in response to his word, but persisted in keeping his pressure on his stomach, "That was easier than I thought…"

"That's because everyone in the city knows, twit."

Ryal glared down at the man, "You're calling me a twit? Let me tell you what, how about I murder your ass for going around and doing whatever the fuck you please. I know your kind. You're from the same branch as the ones who killed my friends, and your actions don't tell much different either. Don't go thinking I wasn't aware of your attempt to kill the girl." He spat, his tone becoming much more infuriated and incensed. Memories were already beginning to resurface from his fallen friends. His hatred for these people grew stronger every time he caught attention of these sorry excuses for people fully capable of rational thinking.

To Ryal's surprise, everyone else seemed to have noticed his outburst – even those who were inside the restaurant were staring at him. The remaining fight between the others seemed to have come to a halt. Apparently, the young man had raised his voice due to his anger.

"Heh, I remember you. We kicked your ass back at the Orin temple to take the 6 star ball." The man mused, chuckling in the process.

Ryal's glare grew due to shock and fury. The livid fighter deliberately brought his foot up and slammed it onto the man's chest with his full might, blinded by his outrage. Upon impact, a sickening crunch had emitted from his chest, and the saiya-jin's eyes rolled to the back of his head.

The fallen warrior is deceased, caused by the enraged fighter. Ryal shot his head towards the others, who continued to stare at the scene unfold, particularly the other Crane fighters. The newfound killer was in the state of tunnel vision, keeping his attention fixed on the one who previously fought the male civilian.

He didn't care about the public; the only thing that mattered to Ryal was to kill off the rest of these inhuman pests.

At that point, Ryal attempted to charge. However, he blacked out on the spot before he could begin to make his way to his opponent.

**-2 days later-**

The blonde lad opened an eye, automatically knowing his own whereabouts. He seemed to be in a hospital room, without anyone other patient in sight. It looked like he had the whole room to himself.

As if the young man had jinxed himself, a doctor walked into the room holding a notepad in his hand, jotting down some notes, "Ryal, is it?"

"Yes."

"Well, it looks like you'll be lucky today. Your story had reached the entire public, announcing that you are the first to actually stop one of the pupils of the Crane school. The mayor of West city announced the dismissal of your previous actions, and you are free from any further investigation. Be glad that you aren't taken to court." The doctor explained to him, reading off of his notepad. Ryal himself wasn't surprised, since the police lacked the power to contain him.

"Also, I would like to add that 2 wonderful people have decided to take you in to share a house with him. Be sure to thank them as well." The doctor continued as he strolled around the room, doing his own errands as he explained more various things involving his health and blah blah blah.

Eventually, Ryal was released out of his hospital bed and put on a spare change of clothes. It consisted of his normal gi except it wasn't torn by Sheryl. He walked out into the hall and looked left and right. The hospital didn't seem to be very busy, only a few people were rushing from door to door, with a couple sitting on a bench nearby.

2 people had approached Ryal, which caught his eye. They were the saiya-jins that fought the Crane fighters back at the intersection. Curiously, he turned towards them, but kept silent.

"Zejuto." The male spoke, holding forth his hand. Ryal shrugged and shook his hand.

"Ryal."

The man nodded his head with a smile before letting go, "It's a pleasure to meet you Ryal… You see, my sister insisted on taking you with us back to our house. So be sure to thank her."

Ryal nodded in agreement and turned his attention to Celeria, who appeared to be just as he imagined – Cute. He grinned at her and extended his hand, "I appreciate you for accepting me into your household."

She smiled brightly and looked up at Ryal, taking his hand, "Celeria."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Celeria."

Ryal eventually let go of the hand shake, and they seemed to have fallen into a silence. In reaction to this, Ryal broke the silence to evade any sort of awkward moment. "Excuse me if this may seem rude, but you guys both seem to be a bit young to own a house."

"Our aunt takes care of us back at home. She won't mind if you join us since we're in a more upper class family." Zejuto spoke up, beginning to walk towards the main lobby. Ryal and Celeria followed closely.

"Ah, so how old are you then?" the martial artist asked.

"14, we're both twins." Zejuto replied as they walked down to the front entrance.

Ryal's eyes widened in shock,_ "14? And they managed to hold their own against those Crane fighters? No way was I near their strength at that age."_

Well, he shouldn't be surprised anyway. Both of them were short in height, especially Celeria. Both of them seem to be wearing a white sweat shirt, Celeria wore black skinny jeans while Zejuto seem to have preferred to wear black track pants instead. Celeria and Zejuto's hair seem to have sprung out in every direction. The only major difference was the colour – Zejuto's hair was black, while Celeria's were brown. The same thing goes to their eye colours.

Once the group made their way out the doors of the hospital, Celeria turned to Ryal, "Can you fly?"

"Yeah, not very well though." Ryal replied, knowing flight was one of his weak points. He would rather travel quickly by leaping from building to building, or by running.

Zejuto and Celeria seemed to have looked at each other for a moment, forming their thoughts before both of the 14 year olds turned their attention back to Ryal, "Do you think you can keep up?" Zejuto asked.

"Most definitely." The young man answered immediately. His running speed was considered to be astounding by most, so he figured he could keep up easily.

Both of the saiya-jins turned their heads and took off into the air. They began travelling to the outskirts of the city, and Ryal ran after them, keeping a sharp eye on them from below.

* * *

End of Chapter 4.


	6. Ambush

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 5: Ambush**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

This chapter shall be extended, so enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

"_Why would they bring me to their house, knowing I murdered a man in front of their own eyes?"_ Ryal thought, which seemed to have echoed inside his mind relentlessly and repetitively. His scepticism towards this didn't seem to fade in the least bit as he continued to run after the 2 young saiya-jins in flight. Perhaps they want something with him? Maybe by killing off one of those pieces of garbage, would bring hope to these people? Hypothetical answers sprung around his mind like no tomorrow, but Ryal wanted the real answer, not a hypothesis or blind claim even if it's based off enough evidence to make it seem plausible.

The martial artist didn't dislike this at all anyway. In fact, he actually enjoyed knowing that a few individuals decided to take him in to live with them. After all, he doesn't have any food left and the outskirts of West city didn't seem to be well conditioned for hunting. A nice, cosy bed would be fitting. These saiya-jins would make great sparring partners for training. So far, things are looking bright despite the recent events.

Before Ryal realized it, the 2 young teens landed before him, landing on the front lawn of a decent sized home. The style and nature of the home seemed well-fitting and comforting – 2 factors that the blonde haired lad adored.

Celeria turned herself around to see Ryal, and a smile appeared upon her face, "This is it! Make yourself at home here. We'll provide you with anything you need." She informed Ryal. Her bright nature had caused Ryal to gaze at her slowly. Quickly, this was interrupted by the sound of Zejuto's voice.

"If you're hungry, just go straight to the fridge. Just don't go for the leftover roast though, that's claimed by me." Zejuto warned him. The tall male switched his attention to Zejuto upon hearing his words. His sister however, didn't seem to approve of his actions. Zejuto ended up receiving a death glare from his loving sister.

"Ah, I'm kidding! Eat whatever you want, just don't go for the bacon. That's always saved for me." He said enthusiastically. He slowly drifted his eyes towards his sister to see her approval. Unfortunately for him, she persisted in glaring at him that spoke, _"I am going to murder your ass."_

With this, the spikey haired lad let out a sigh. However, this was soon replaced by a wide grin, "Ok, fine. You can have anything you want. If you guys need me, I'll be off training in the backyard." He announced, still filled with astounding enthusiasm before turning his back on the 2. He leaped over the house, and landed onto the backyard.

Suddenly, Ryal's stomach began to grumble deeply, and the blonde lad turned his head away from the girl and blush lightly, "Excuse me, but I haven't ate in days. Sorry if I seem like I'm invading your home."

Celeria giggled slightly in response, "Didn't we just tell you? Make yourself at home."

"Oh, I'll guess I do that then…" Ryal responded sheepishly, with his blush growing intensely. He immediately walked up the door steps and halted at the front door. The lad was about to turn around to ask if he was allowed to just walk in, but he quickly remembered her words _"Make yourself at home."_

The male entered the doorway, and halted at the doormat. He observed the room to gather any possible styles of living. He looked down to see a few pairs of shoes lined up against the white painted wall. Ryal took off his shoes and did the same thing, attempting to follow the rules of the house by gathering clues and pieces of evidence. The lad walked through the living room which took place upon entrance of the house, which consisted of a Television set on the far left side of the room. A couch remained a few feet across from the T.V. Paintings were hung up around the room, much like any home you would find in West City. The kitchen was separated by the change into a tile floor, and a bar that sat along the dividing line between the 2 locations. The kitchen was surprisingly large – much larger than his own. The refrigerator seemed to be ludicrously large. Upon seeing it, Ryal rushed straight over to the food-filled storage. He opened up the double doors only to be introduced by mountain piles of food, covering all food groups, each category being enough to last one man a week. The shelves were stuffed with various beverages and sauces, along with jam and peanut butter; anything of that sort. The main part was filled with fruits and vegetables of all kinds, including heavy stacks of meat and dairy. This mountain storage ultimately caused Ryal to drool and stare at the endless hills of meats and vegetables, and only stare. His decision on what to eat would take centuries, due to the amount of food that lied within the unfathomably large stacks of it, which all need to be taken into consideration.

"Who the hell are you!?" A woman shouted from behind Ryal, causing him to slip over the tile floor and fall straight unto his back. This caused the high hills within the refrigerator to tumble over and engulf him within the endless barrage of falling fruits and vegetables.

"Aunt Elena! He's our guest!" Celeria shouted from across the living room.

"Oh, my apologies. I didn't mean to scare you like that." Elena apologised on the spot. Ryal's response seems to have evaporated within the colossal mess.

Celeria walked over to the kitchen and looked around the bar. Upon witnessing Ryal's ultimate fate, she held back a laugh. However, she maintained her act and walked over to the pile of food and began to move things aside to find Ryal's face. After moving aside large quantities of food, she had discovered Ryal deep beneath the pile.

"Are you alright?" She asked, with her tone still as happy as ever. A small grin formed on the young man's face in response to her question.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, no sense in wasting all of this food. I think we should just dig in!" Elena exclaimed as she walked over to the pile of food. She lifted up an apple and began chowing down on it. Within seconds, the apple was already robbed of all of its nutrients. Celeria simply nodded and began feeding on the vegetables.

Ryal took a pear that lied right next to him, and began eating it. _"Finally, food." _He thought as he slowly consumed the fruit, careful not to overload himself after the lack of food he had over the past few days. Time seemed to have flown by at this point, since the martial artist was completely distracted and enveloped by the flavourful pile of fruits and vegetables.

However, this didn't last very long, since the saiya-jins tend to have a much larger appetite as opposed to humans. Both Celeria and Elena had fed on the hill of food at an insane pace, much like a lawn mower cutting down grass. Once the young man thought he was done his meal, he sat up from the more petite pile of food that he lied in. After straightening his back, the man climbed to his feet, and rested his elbow on the bar, watching the 2 girls eat like pigs.

"Ah, this is much better. I haven't felt like this in a while, thanks for having me over."

"It's no problem, really." Elena spoke with her mouth full, chewing the food down and swallowing it before reaching out for the last of the grapes.

"If you don't mind, I'll be outside practicing my martial arts." Ryal informed politely before reaching for the slide door.

As Ryal reached for the door handle, he was quickly interrupted by the sound of Celeria's voice, "Mmh!" She said with her mouth full. Inhumanly, she swallowed the huge chunk of food that she contained in her mouth, "I'll go too."

Ryal raised a brow, halting in his footsteps. It would be beneficial to have a training partner with her calibre. After all, he did acquire some knowledge on her fighting abilities back when they fought the Crane pupils on the intersection. Ryal simply shrugged and opened the slid door. He kept it open for the girl to walk through, and strolled over to a section of the lawn. Zejuto appeared to be training in the corner of the lawn, doing finger push ups on his right hand.

Once Ryal reached his preferred space, he turned around to see Celeria. A grin formed on his face as his eyes came in contact with hers. "Celeria, how about you be my training partner?" He asked, hoping for a 'yes' or a nod. Rarely did he find such opportunities to do this aside from the recent occurrences.

"I'll be glad to spar with you." She responded almost instantly, going straight into her fighting stance, "I warn you though, you're probably going to lose."

Zejuto's ears seem to have perked up from hearing the words 'training' and 'spar'. Curiosity easily got the best of him, which lead the saiya-jin teen to jump to his feet and crack his knuckles, walking over to the 2.

"You guys are gonna fight without me? I ain't letting that happen." Zejuto blurted out brashly.

"Alright, I think we can settle this with a little something called battle royal. I used to do it all the time with my old friends back at Orin temple." Ryal spoke up, waiting to hear a response to determine whether or not the 2 actually have knowledge on it.

"I'm in!" Both of the young fighters chimed in. Ryal and Zejuto quickly stepped into their fighting stances.

"I'm ready whenever." Ryal informed the 2, which instantly caused the 2 to charge straight at Ryal simultaneously. The human's eyes widened at their sudden reaction, but it didn't' seemed to matter in the end anyways. Ryal leaped off to the side to avoid catching conflict with both of the fighters at the same time.

Celeria was the first to charge straight the lad, who was followed by Zejuto. The 14 year old girl fired off a straight punch towards Ryal's cheek. However, the male human managed to catch it and land a heavy side kick to her mid-section. She was sent flying back towards Zejuto, but the male saiya-jin managed to swiftly weave to the side before getting hit. He launched a quick roundhouse kick towards Ryal's head.

Ryal reacted by ducking underneath the kick before launching a right hook towards his cheek, but Zejuto jolted his head back before it landed. He retaliated by firing off a front kick at Ryal, which he blocked with his shin. The saiya-jin continued attacking by aiming a knife hand strike towards the blonde fighter's face, which landed successfully. Ryal quickly used the momentum of the strike to spin around and land a breath-taking reverse roundhouse kick to the teen's cheek. Zejuto was sent flying in the general direction of where Celeria had taken the blow. Speaking of Celeria…

She had landed a straight punch for Ryal's cheek at this point, causing him to fall straight to the ground. Instantly, Ryal ricocheted off the ground and straight at Celeria, launching a twin fist vertical strike to her stomach. This made her stumble back in response. She quickly countered by launching a front leg side kick to Ryal's forehead, which the human managed to dodge. He came in close and fired an elbow to her cheek, but she raised her arm and the 2 fighters locked their forearms in place, trying to dominate the other with pure force. Lightning sparks sprung around the point of contact, and an aura formed around the 2 warriors. Ryal's aura was white, while Celeria's appeared to be blue. However, this struggle for dominance ended short due to the incoming energy wave that made its way to the 2.

Ryal jumped back while Celeria leaned herself back to avoid the path of the energy attack, which was redirected into the air to avoid pointless destruction.

Zejuto jumped straight at Celeria without time to spare, and landed a deadly flying side kick to her ribcage, which sent her flying several yards away. He then fixed his attention to Ryal, and charged him. Once he came within striking distance, the young man had already jumped high into the air. Zejuto smirked upon witnessing this, knowing Ryal isn't very good at flying. He jumped after him.

Knowing his chances in mid-air are thin, Ryal began his preparations for his signature attack once again. His left hand folded over her right, and positioned it right at the hips. A red aura formed around his hands, and lightning seemed to have sparked right at that moment. Once Zejuto came close, Ryal shot his hands forward, shooting his attack at point blank range.

"Reddo Kyanon!" He shouted, releasing a massive energy wave, which pushed Zejuto straight down to the ground. The beam accelerated as it reached the ground, and pinned the saiya-jin warrior against the ground upon landing. Zejuto groaned in pain as the energy wave trapped him against the ground, but it didn't seem to last long, as the wave dissipated into the air.

Celeria got up from her place on the ground, and assumed a stance, as if she was going to perform a technique. She smirked as she positioned herself perfectly, "Ni Bunkatsu!" She shouted, creating 3 other clones of herself on the spot. All of the clones leaped straight into the air, and surrounded Ryal mid-flight.

Ryal gritted his teeth upon seeing the Celeria clones, knowing he stands no chance in mid-air, especially since she is using a cloning technique. Ryal was aware of several of them, but he didn't care about which one she used, the only thing that mattered to him at this point was escaping flight.

However, this didn't seem to come true since the first clone already rushed him, landing a front kick to his ribcage with ease. The next clone flew in and hit him in the back with a front leg side kick, causing him to be sent towards the third clone. Once he was within striking distance, the girl landed a straight punch towards his cheek, sending him back to yet another clone.

Clone after clone, Celeria after Celeria, she landed every kick and punch on the helpless Ryal.

"Demon…Red… LIGHTNING!" Zejuto cried out, firing a thick, jagged, red lightning bolt that struck one of the clones of Celeria, which ultimately caused her to be reduced to one clone. This was the weakness of her technique, if one of her clones was hit, she would be reduced to just herself yet again.

Ryal let out a sigh of relief as his body drifted towards the ground, but this didn't stop Celeria from chasing him down. The 2 came in contact, causing them to be enveloped in a series of thrown punches and kicks. This was short-lived however, as both Ryal and Celeria departed the scramble and landed in their respective corners of land.

A trickle of blood left Ryal's lips. The warrior grinned slightly as he wiped it off, observing the other 2 fighters. The fight seemed to have come to a temporary halt.

"I suppose that was the warm up then, right?" Ryal stated, looking at the 2 for clarification.

This made Zejuto smile, and enter his sparring stance, "Yeah, you got that right. I promise to not hold back this time."

A smirk formed on Celeria's face, but she didn't say a word about it.

Ryal's grin faded as he positioned himself into a horse stance, retracting his hands to his sides, "I hope so, because my next move will probably be your last judging by how you move. That includes you, Celeria."

Celeria ignored his words, rendering it meaningless before charging straight at Ryal. The human took a long step forward, and formed an odd looking fist. It wasn't an open hand, nor was it a real fist. The finger joint closest to the knuckles seemed to be the only joint that was bent. This allowed Ryal to strike with the joint on his fingers instead of his knuckles, or his fingertips, or an open palm.

"Dragon Claw!" Ryal shouted with a war cry, leaping at Celeria with inhuman speed. The 2 clash, but Ryal quickly came on top, knocking her around with his quick, repetitive strikes that seemed invisible to the naked eye, undetected by even the most talented fighters. This was another one of his father's techniques, solely based off of the _Roga Fufu Ken._

After landing several strikes, he ended off the combination with a twin fist vertical strike, which smashed the girl straight into the ground. After committing the strike, the blonde fighter landed on a single foot, followed after the other. His attention switched over to Zejuto.

The remaining saiya-jin seemed to be in a state of shock, unable to comprehend the agility in his technique. Ryal grinned, and lowered his hands, "That's enough for now. I do not wish to cause too much destruction around here."

Zejuto arched his eyebrows and gritted his teeth in response to hearing Ryal's words. He pressed his foot against the ground, and changed his fighting stance, "Come on! I'm not done yet! Let's go!" He exclaimed. The reckless fighter looked like he was about to pounce.

"I admire your perseverance, but we were just training. Let's just settle this fight as a draw. Nobody wins." Ryal spoke calmly. Zejuto sighed, and reluctantly lowered his guard. The young man turned to see Celeria, who appeared to be motionless on the ground, but still conscious.

"You're talented much like your brother, and your moves are fascinating. I hope to train with you again someday." Ryal complemented, extending his hand towards her. Inclined to do so, she took his hand with a sweet smile, and the taller warrior pulled her up to her feet.

"Wow, I didn't know humans can move so fast." A voice echoed from the house. Elena stood outside the slide door, having a cup of coffee as she watched the fight unfold.

"Ah, these times haven't been at its pinnacle in terms of fitness in centuries. I'm just lucky to be the son of an amazing martial artist." Ryal proclaimed.

"And who may that be?" Elena questioned.

Ryal swung his arms around in circles as he approached her, followed by Celeria and Zejuto.

For Ryal, this was something he was reluctant to say. His father was said to be a world renowned martial artist in his 20's before he made himself obscure to the open world by hiding out in the forest, away from human interference. He just assumed his father disliked the attention, and rather live a life alone with his mom. His father was trained by the mighty Kamesennin himself, and studied under several other martial art styles. He even made his own, which he taught to Ryal. This wasn't known by the public though, as Ryal's father preferred to keep it known only by the bloodline. This was actually the main reason why Ryal never announces or even utters his last name, because it may very well attract another man or woman to ask him an endless series of questions. That's what his father usually described it as anyway.

This seemed to be a different situation though, since these people were generous, caring, and quite welcoming. It would be disrespectful to just avoid the question anyhow.

"Try not to overreact from this…" Ryal began, formulating his thoughts. He bit his lip and let out a deep breath before making eye contact with Elena.

"My father is known as Rodetem Flint." Ryal spilled out.

"Rodetem? Who's he?" Zejuto asked. Celeria seemed to be in a state of confusion as well, but refrained herself from speaking.

Elena on the other hand, seemed to have been hit with wave of shock. It was obvious that she must have known the name from somewhere. Wonder filled her eyes, feeling as she must have hit the jackpot.

"Rodetem, as in the one who won the 312th Tenkaichi Budokai, and went undefeated for 4 years before not returning? The very man who won all of those battles and disappeared years later?" Elena questioned, looking for clarification to confirm what she had just heard. Ryal nodded his head in response, and twins seemed to be completely dumbfounded.

"Wait, your dad won the world tournament for 4 years straight?" Zejuto asked him.

"Of course he did, you can look at the records for yourself." Ryal responded.

"What happened to your dad though? Surely he must be somewhere, since nobody knew he had a _son._" Elena asked.

Of course, this was something Ryal himself wasn't up to discussing. Reluctantly, he spoke, "My father passed away 5 years ago, when I was 11." He admitted. The young man himself couldn't figure out why he would be so open about it. All of those years ago, Ryal couldn't speak many words about anything. He moved away from his mother to avoid any communication after his father died. He isolated himself from anyone for several years before he considered giving his mother a short visit, along with another visit to his old Orin temple friends.

Now, he was talking about it casually, as if nothing happened, or at least that's what he thought.

Elena frowned and lowered her head upon hearing Ryal's words, letting out a deep sigh, "I shouldn't have asked that, I really shouldn't."

"Hey, it's fine. I'm over it now." Ryal spoke up quickly.

"Why are we even talking about this anyway? Shouldn't we head on in and do something else for a change?" Zejuto suggested with his usual, loud tone.

Ryal nodded in agreement, "I suppose, you guys have yet to show me the rest of the house."

"I'll show you around." Celeria volunteered without a moment to spare. Zejuto shrugged and walked back out onto the lawn again to train.

Elena simply smiled and continued to sip her coffee. So Celeria entered the house through the slide door, followed by Ryal.

The house seemed to have shown its own style consistently throughout the house. Every room and every section of the home shared the same style, with the wooden plank floors and the white panted walls. There were marble counters in the washrooms and kitchen along with the doorknobs being made of marble. Overall, it was definitely a welcoming place to stay, despite the lack of guest rooms. After being brought through the tour of the house, the 2 ended up in Celeria's room. It was 2nd to the master bedroom that belonged to Elena, but still larger than Zejuto's bedroom.

Celeria was the first to sit down on the bed before Ryal, who decided to take a seat next to her. His eyes trailed along the room, observing decorations and paintings, even other various inanimate objects. Eventually, he turned his attention to Celeria, who still had her joyful smile as usual. It was like the young man himself was some sort of prized possession or she just happened to be under some sort of spell that made her smile so sweetly constantly.

"So, how'd you like it?" She asked.

"It's cosy, and fitting. I like it."

A moment of silence took place after the short-lived conversation took place. Ryal's eyes drifted off to other ends of the room, trapped into deep thought. Then he remembered…

"_Why would they bring me to their house, knowing I murdered a man in front of their own eyes?"_

Well, it's now or never. He might as well ask to find the answer he so heavily dwelled upon.

"So, why do you insist on me living here? Even after what I did?" He asked sceptically.

Celeria couldn't answer, so she didn't respond. Ryal waited patiently, as he didn't want to rush her. The smile that once existed on the saiya-jins face, had faded. She turned away, hoping that somehow, someway she could avoid answering the question that seemed to have come right out of the blue for the soul purpose of eliminating her chances of…

_**BAM**_

The 2 were immediately engulfed in a blast that completely decimated the house, causing piles of rubble to fall upon the 2. Smoke filled the air, the ceiling had fallen, and the walls were torn, all within a single moment.

Instinctively, Ryal tackled Celeria down to shield her from the massive explosion that incinerated parts of the house.

After a single moment, the smoke slowly dissipated into the sky, but it still remained. Ryal slowly raised himself and looked down at Celeria, "Are you alright?" He asked out of concern. Celeria simply nodded her head in response, so Ryal carefully stood up to his feet, and began to walk around the severed floors. He explored the newly destroyed house, unable to fathom how and what could have possibly caused someone to blow up the house.

"AUNT ELENA!" A young, male voice echoed from the clear outdoors. Upon hearing this, Celeria widened her eyes and rushed for the slide doors, or at least where the voice came from, "Aunt Elena?" She called out, with no response.

Ryal walked after her, taking his time to reach there. After arrival, he came to a halt, witnessing a limp, bloody body on the ground. Ryal simply stared at the deceased aunt of the young saiya-jins. He continued to witness the young twins, both in tears to see their only guardian pass away without any warning, or chance to switch away from the truth.

The male human turned around, only to see the 2 pupils of the Crane schools.

The same ones that they fought on the intersection.

The same ones that killed Collin and Lucas, leaving his last friend alone and overwhelmed with depression.

Kento's words echoed throughout Ryal's mind as he caught eye of the repulsive, persistent, evil sack of shit.

_"I want you to go and avenge our friends. They're seeking for the dragon balls without fail, and they need to stop, and be brought to justice. I strongly believe you're the only one who could pull it off."_

"You unforgivable piece of shit, I'll be sure to boot your worthless asses to hell this time. Just like your friend." Ryal spat with anger, which was loud enough for both Zejuto and Celeria to hear. Both of the twins raised their heads to see the unwanted guests.

"That's what happens when you kill one of our highly respected members." The one Crane student stated.

Celeria gritted her teeth, and clenched her fist tightly, powered by fury. She glared at the newcomers, with looks that can kill. Immediately, she stood up to her feet. Tears trickled down her cheeks more and more frequently, she sobbed quietly as she rose to her feet. Her attention was glued at the killers, rage filled her eyes, and she entered the state of tunnel vision.

"She was my aunt, you fucking bastard."

"You're aunt? I see. I guess you get to look for another person to live with then, since you're too young to take care of yourself. Come on Dean, let's go." The Crane fighter said, gesturing his fellow partner to come with him. The other man nodded, and both immediately took off in flight.

Celeria growled and flew after them, enveloped in pain and anger, blinded by her own stress.

"Celeria! Don't!" Ryal shouted, but it wasn't of any use.

"I'm going too; nobody gets away with killing Aunt Elena." Zejuto snarled under his breath before taking off after Celeria.

"_Damn it, this won't end very well…" _Ryal thought as he sighed in defeat. He began running after the group of warriors, reluctant to find out what will happen next.

* * *

End of Chapter 5

This is the half-way point in the 1st arc. So what did you think of this chapter? Be sure to leave a review!


	7. Kikouhou!

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 6: Kikouhou!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

The chase took place through flight, and Ryal was only one to observe how it would go. The Crane pupils were running away, while Celeria had her eyes set on the 2. Zejuto of course, wasn't far behind. From the blonde warrior's perspective, things didn't look very bright, but dim metaphorically speaking. To him, risk was an overwhelming factor.

After what seemed like only a brief set of time, the fleeing men had arrived at their chosen destination and landed next to another man standing on top of a rooftop. By first impression, this particular stranger looked menacing to anyone's eyes. That was Ryal's own perspective from a reasonable _distance._

Celeria was the next to land on the same rooftop, closely followed by Zejuto. It was only a matter of time before she would attack relentlessly without thinking. Upon landing on the building, Ryal reached for Celeria's shoulder, but she took off.

"Wait! Stop!" Ryal shouted as a last resort. It was too late; she was after the group of men. One of them was unknown to them, and it gave the young man the impression that this stranger, equipped with a stare so cold that could make even the most powerful of rulers and tyrants shudder at thought of such a man.

The young girl approached the group of Crane students with her full might, thrusting her fist powered by blind fury and overwhelming hate. This strike was short-lived however, as a knife hand came and went swiftly without warning, catching even the talented saiya-jin off guard. Unexpectedly, this sudden movement knocked Celeria countless yards away, sending her crashing onto other rooftops of West city.

Zejuto gritted his teeth, but didn't make his move yet. He knew full well that his sister deserved a chance. She too had her aunt pass away without warning. Ryal on the other hand, observed the new fighter. His eyes were brown, and seemed to be the only thing visible under the man's long bangs. His brown hair seemed to fall down in every direction, ending just below the ears. His eyes would be described as lost, and emotionless. As if one were put through so much pain that the victim went numb, and all regard for life had suddenly disappeared. Others may say that they are the eyes of a drone, or they are eyes that have witnessed deaths that couldn't be fathomed by most. To the young lad himself, it all applied, and it all seemed fitting unfortunately.

The young saiya-jin shot up from the cement floor beneath her, and charged head first at the one who hit her last. A quick, right leg roundhouse kick aimed at the man's chin, but he swung his head under the incoming foot, and closed any remaining distance between the 2 fighters. He swung his elbow down with the power of a hammer carrying the weight of an elephant, causing the girl to painfully hit the ground. The impact was hard enough for her to bounce off of the cement ground, and leave enough room for the stranger to fire a high lifting kick, which sent her straight into the air. Celeria arched her back which stung like hell, caused by the multiple hits directed in that area. The man leaped high into the air, and brought up his right hand. It was in the form of an L, using the index, middle finger and thumb to form the letter. He brought it down on Celeria's gut as he approached her closely in mid-air, and shot a blunt force of ki into the strike to send her crashing straight into the ground yet again.

"Bastard!" Zejuto shouted before he began running forward. Quickly, he was stopped when a hand was firmly placed on his shoulder by Ryal.

"It's important to protect the ones we love and fight to the pinnacle of our strengths, but it is also important to choose your decisions wisely so you can continue to increase your full potential, and continue to strive for the better." The lad spoke. His tone deepened in seriousness, and knew such a thing can't be taken lightly. This man was capable of putting her down with ease, and Celeria still couldn't get to her feet.

Zejuto swung his head around to see Ryal behind him, who towered over him with his astounding height. Slowly but reluctantly, the saiya-jin nodded but said nothing.

"Now I want you to protect your sister, she doesn't seem to be capable of fighting very effectively in her state. I'll see what I can do with him…" Ryal insisted before walking forward towards the antagonistic men. Zejuto quickly leapt back and landed beside Celeria, seeing her covered in a few rocks with bruises scattered throughout her body. She didn't seem to be conscious.

A drop of sweat trickled down the side of his cheek, with each second going by his fear grew. After seeing his agile movement, and his sheer power, Ryal had strong doubts that he could pull it off. With situations like these, Ryal often refers to words that have hit him in the past, particularly his father.

"_Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars…And what do you do if you miss? You shoot again."_

_Of course this was Ryal's personal favourite quote from his father. He needed to go big, and possibly make big risks. Even failing would bring you good deeds, and it won't hurt to try again._

_"I want you to go and avenge our friends. They're seeking for the dragon balls without fail, and they need to stop, and be brought to justice. I strongly believe you're the only one who could pull it off."_

_Most importantly, the young man knew why he was doing this. This is also not just about avenging his deceased friends. It's about preventing them from summoning the dragon, and protecting his friends._

_It was no wonder why his father told him to aim for big things. One must be willing to shoot big in order to change things for the good. Everything started to become clear now…_

_"_You're in the way of my primary goal. Unfortunately, I have no other choice but to fight." Ryal stated, with a hint of anger trailing through the sound of his voice.

"Then make your move." the man responded coldly, and quite monotone at that. When Ryal pounced at Eton, he threw a side kick that rivaled the speed of lightning. However, the opposing fighter vanished into thin air before impact. Barely milliseconds after committing the kick, Ryal too vanished into thin air, chasing after the other man who sped around the rooftop at an insane pace. He threw off his traditional hat and tunic, which showed his bare back. He appeared to be wearing black gi pants with a red cummerbund wrapped around the top rim of the pants. He wore the tradition yellow and black boots with the pants sleeves tucked in, and he wore yellow wristbands.

After chasing the fighter for what seemed like too long, Ryal began shooting energy blasts out of his hands. The hostile warrior seemed to have zipped out of the way, taking the form of a blur as he dodged each set explosion. Suddenly, the brown haired man dashed behind the blonde fighter and landed a hard elbow to his back. Ryal arched his back and winced in pain, but wasted no time and swiftly turned his body around, but only to see another punch straight for his face. He turned straight into the fist, which caused him to flinch back a few steps. The opposing pupil of the Crane school didn't hesitate to persist in his attack, and launched a front kick straight for the lad. Ryal managed to strike at his leg with both of his palms to redirect it back down.

Another kick swung at Ryal's head, causing him to duck before impact and begin an attack of his own. The blonde fighter swung a straight punch towards his gut as his body was low after the duck. The fighter responded to his punch by doubling over from the landed hit. Ryal took this open opportunity and fired a hook straight for his cheek, which landed as well. He continued on with a barrage of punches in all forms, and many directions. The hostile warrior couldn't seem to hold his own well against these punches.

Once Ryal was satisfied, he swung his body around and planted his foot on his cheek with a reverse roundhouse kick, sending the man flying into a distant building window.

A grin formed on Ryal's face upon seeing his opponent crash into a building. It was short-lived however; as he came flying out seconds after and landed a curb-stomping palm strike to the taller fighter's nose, which sent him flying into the air. The man continued to charge Ryal, but he quickly countered with an energy wave. The Crane warrior instantly flew over the wave of ki and travelled along the path of the blast. He came within melee range and hit Ryal's head with a skull-crushing axe kick. Unfortunately for the blonde fighter, he was yet again sent flying. This time, through the rooftop and ended up a floor below ground level.

The fighter ached in pain, and slowly drifted to his feet after crashing through that building. The man landed right in front of him, crossing arms and waving his tail around.

"A saiya-jin?"

"A half saiya-jin. You'll address me as my first name, Eton, from now on." He stated. The man was fond of Ryal's technique and physical condition, so he gave out his name because his opponent was of enough worth to be considered a thought.

"Ah, saiya-jin or not, it won't change my mind on what I plan on doing to you."

**-Meanwhile-**

"Hey, we haven't settled our last fight. I'd love to finish up kicking your ass." The Crane pupil said, particularly Dean. His partner, Robert was cracking his knuckles in preparations for the upcoming fight.

Zejuto turned his attention to the 2 fighters, and a smile formed on his face. "Fine, don't hold back."

Robert charged first, and Zejuto immediately brought up his forearm to block the incoming fist. Quickly, the young teen rotated his body at the speed of a tornado and land a turn side kick to his mid-section with his full might. The Crane pupil was sent flying after the kick, much to Zejuto's expectations. Next, Dean was the next to attack. He fired a right leg roundhouse kick over to his head, but the young lad ducked under the kick and came rushing in with an uppercut to the chin. Dean tilted his head back to avoid the punch, and prepared himself onto the defense. The smaller saiya-jin persisted and throwing punches and kicks at the Crane fighter, with each strike being dodged or blocked. This gave enough time for Robert to rush in and landed a flying side kick to Zejuto's head, which sent him crashing towards the ground.

That's when Celeria snapped her eyes open. She drifted her eyes towards the 2 hostile men standing above her, which triggered what her goals were.

_To avenge Aunt Elena._

Instinctively, she shot herself to her feet and fired a deadly palm strike to the side of the unsuspecting man's face. Instantly, she switched her attention to the other fighter and landed a front kick to Robert's backside, causing the man to tumble over to the ground.

"Damn bitch." Dean spat as he rushed over to Celeria. However, this was quickly interrupted by Zejuto's foot being planted firmly on his cheek, making the saiya-jin fighter shoot through the neighbouring building's walls like a bullet.

"Where's the other one!?" Celeria questioned. However, she immediately took off without the chance of an answer to be given.

"Wait, sis!" Zejuto shouted out to his blood related sister. She didn't respond nor stop, but he chased after her.

Suddenly, 2 blurs shot out from a building right across from the 14 year olds. The blurs seemed to be moving incredibly fast and fighting for dominance, but it was quickly broken apart and Ryal landed on one end of the building, while Eton landed on another rooftop.

The 2 fighters seem to be at a high league in terms of fighting, but there was a noticeable difference between the 2. Ryal was breathing heavily, and received a bit of fatigue during the scramble, while Eton remained calm, giving him the upper hand.

"Alright, let us start off with the second round…" Ryal began as he started to charge straight at Eton.

The intimidating man raised and pointed his index finger at the charging warrior. Taking a split second to focus his ki, he fired a deadly yellow beam straight at Ryal.

"Dodon!"

The beam made its way straight to the unsuspecting lad. The energy pierced through his shoulder, and popped out of the other end. This caused Ryal to halt in his tracks, and found himself unable to move until the beam disappeared.

Eton shot a beam through Ryal's chest.

Ryal tumbled over to the ground, and blood began to pool around the area of which the hole took place on the fighter's body. His body was much more limp now then it was just a few seconds ago. Eton lowered his hand, but didn't say anything. He didn't feel remorse or smile, but just stare at his fallen opponent.

"R-Ryal?" Celeria whispered under her breath, stunned at the moment to see yet another man die in front of her eyes. Certainly, it wasn't pleasant to see such a brutal thing happen before her. Unfortunately, it happened to be somebody she showed passion for on the inside.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the limp body, "RYAL!" She shouted. She began to run over to the fallen man, but she was quickly stopped by her blood brother.

"Don't race in like that, he told me to stay out of this." Her brother told her.

"He needs our help!" Celeria retorted, struggling to break free of his grip. However, Ryal raised his other hand to signal his consciousness. Slowly, he set himself on one foot, and then the other. He stood up, but his body was still limp and sluggish.

"It's fine…" Ryal muttered under his breath, taking in shudders for a breath due to his shoulder. Upon witnessing this, Eton simply leaped high into the air and halted at his preferred position. He observed the bodies below, obtaining a good view of them from above.

"Do you have any last words?" Eton asked the injured man. Ryal looked up to see the Crane pupil floating dozens of yards into the air. He looked left to see the 14 year olds standing merely a few yards away, with the other Crane students watching intently from the distance. Ryal looked back up to see Eton floating in the sky, unsure of what he was going to do next. To be honest, Ryal himself had no idea what to do next. Moving with a hole in his chest wasn't exactly easy.

In the end, the blonde lad ignored his question, which ultimately caused the cold man to commit his next action.

He brought his hands together, and slowly drew them apart. A yellow aura formed around each hand, with lightning connecting the 2 auras. Eventually, he gathered enough energy and brought them back together. He gritted his teeth as the energy disappeared. The man carefully formed a triangle with his hands, with Ryal being the centre of the crosshairs. Eton prepped up for his next move after putting Ryal in his sights.

The taller warrior on the other hand, widened his eyes in terror from the man's actions. _"This isn't good at all…"_ was the first thought that entered his mind. Quickly, he turned his attention towards the 2 young teens. His face was filled with worry.

"Run, run now…" Ryal insisted, sounding urgent in his demand. Both teens nodded in response and each took off in the other direction, much like how Ryal wanted.

Before he knew it, it happened.

"**KIKOUHOU!"**

* * *

End of Chapter 6.


	8. Training

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 7: Training**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

A bright light emitted from where Ryal once stood, engulfing him in an explosion that shattered the ground beneath him. With heavy smoke in the air, the intense heat of the blast warmed the faces of those who stood near. Unlike many other blasts, the Kikouhou was massive, and incredibly powerful.

The aftermath of the blast revealed a crippled building, with only a single corner remained untouched, along with a bottomless crater from where the attack landed. With the results clear to the naked eye, Eton let out a deep sigh, though maintained his posture.

"He's dead." Eton stated without care. The sound of his voice was emotionless and monotone, almost like listening to a robot.

"He's dead too!?" Zejuto exclaimed, while his twin sister remained silent. Their emotions were clouded with fear, helplessness, and even sadness. With their aunt dead, and a former superior martial artist fallen, one could assume that they are next to approach the heavens.

"Yes… And you are too." Eton responded, shifting his sights over to the siblings below him. He was already preparing his next attack, aiming for them.

"Wait…" a voice spoke lowly, and faintly.

Ryal crawled out from the bottomless pit, covered in bruises and scratches. Blood was splattered everywhere throughout his body, and most of his clothes were torn off, presenting only his pants. Despite the brutal attacks he received, he kept on living, and even moved inch by inch.

This caught Eton's eye, causing him to lose his attention. He shifted his head towards Ryal instantly upon seeing him, "How are you still moving after that!?" He questioned.

"That's simple. Everyone has the choice to become better. Why waste life when it has great potential?" The young man responded.

Eton took a moment to comprehend Ryal's reply, though failed to see the meaning of his reply. Out of simple curiosity, he decided to investigate further, "What do you mean by that?"

"Idiot, I'm not going simply die knowing I haven't done my absolute best to make this world a better place. Why sit down and give up, and die? When I can live on and become better." Ryal retorted. Slowly, he raised himself to his knees and elbows, barely keeping his head up high enough to see Eton stare down at him from above. The demi-saiya-jin narrowed his eyes, and fixated his hands towards Ryal. "Keep thinking that, and I'll blow you to pieces."

Ryal gritted his teeth as he helplessly stared at his hands move into formation. He couldn't die yet, he has a set goal that he needs to shoot for, and dying would mean he would have given up. Giving up is not an option. However, he wasn't the only one who could carry through with the goal…

The young lad looked over to Zejuto and Celeria, "You 2, what did I tell you to do? Just, run."

"Makankosappo!"

The voice boomed, though unfamiliar and unexpected. The twins didn't react, but only paid attention to the sound of the voice, whilst it gave the impression of calling the name of an attack. Ryal perked up from the loud call, with his thoughts immediately going through change.

A yellowish beam, with a purple spiral circling the beam itself came rushing through the dull air. It appeared to be directed at Eton, who took the blow without even realizing it. An explosion occurred instantly, causing the demi-saiya-jin to be distracted for a brief moment. After the attack was committed and the smoke hit the sky, a green humanoid like being shot into view and went straight for Ryal. Carefully but swiftly, he threw him over his shoulder and leapt onto the building that currently displayed the location of Zejuto and Celeria. Without a moment to spare, he quickly grabbed the young saiya-jins and began to flee from the scene rapidly, and eventually arrived at a vacant, safe location. He set down Zejuto and Celeria at this point, but kept the injured fighter over his shoulder.

"I need you 2 to follow me quickly, understand?" The newcomer insisted. The twins appeared to be stunned, and at a loss of words. Celeria took a short step back, while Zejuto formulated what he was going to say. However, this was quickly interrupted by the green man.

"Understood!?" He repeated, with his tone becoming more urgent and ticked. Zejuto and Celeria both nodded, which indicated the newcomer to take a left turn and speed off through the streets. Both of the young teens took off after the man without a moment passed.

**- 4 hours later –**

The sun appeared to be closer to the horizon, and tainted the sky in oranges and reds. This gave the landscape a much different feel, with the clouds out of the way. The green humanoid set down Ryal on a large boulder within a shallow cave that ended a few yards in. It was enough to give shelter to a few for a day.

West city was a ways away, several kilometres to be exact. The skyscrapers were faint and low, only seen from above the trees of the dense forest.

Zejuto and Celeria, were both in a low, depressed mood. Their homes were destroyed, but at least they're safe now judging by this newcomer's intentions. After all, he did save them from Crane fighters.

"Alright, we're safe here." The green being started, interrupting the silence of the forest. He walked out of the miniature cave and stood tall before the smaller twins. He crossed his arms, and drifted his eyes downwards to the young teens.

"I need you 2 to listen closely, go out into the woods and find some Sano plants. They should be common in this area. If you didn't know, they're usually in groups of 5 or 6 leaves, in a bluish colour. Is that understood?"

Zejuto simply nodded, while Celeria gave the man an odd look, "Why?"

The larger being narrowed his eyes in response, "Just do it."

With a sigh, she turned around and dove into the bushed along with her blood brother. She didn't know why she had to, but didn't like the fact that she was searching for some stupid plant while somebody was on the verge of death due to impalement.

Though as told, she did what the man had asked along with her brother. They each collected approximately a dozen plants in the description of the man's orders. The twins returned, both handing them to the green being.

He accepted the plants and turned around. He entered the minuscule cave and began rubbing the plants together. A bluish substance began to form, and he gathered a handful of the new substance. He firmly placed it on Ryal's shoulder, causing the blonde lad to shudder in response. The substance covered the hole in his chest, and he continued to rest in his position.

"There, he should be fine now. It'll take a couple of days to heal." The stranger stated before turning his body to Zejuto and Celeria.

"You may call me Zarx, now I wish to know your names so I can address you properly." He greeted in his usual, deep tone.

Upon hearing this, Zejuto quickly let out a smile and became the first one to speak, "I'm Zejuto! And this is my sister, Celeria. We're grateful for what you did back there, and saving Ryal's life too."

With this, Celeria also let out a faint smile, simply relieved that this individual didn't have any wrong intentions. However, this spawned out more questions. _Why was this man doing this?_

"So that was this man's name. He seemed to have put up a good fight against that Crane pupil. As for you 2, you appear to be undoubtedly powerful for your age." Zarx stated.

"Why are you doing this?" Celeria quickly interjected. "What caused you to do all of this? Why?"

Zarx fixed his cold stare on the young girl, formulating a simple response. However, it wasn't easy to explain it all in a single sentence. There was no use lying to them either, since it was mandatory for them to know what is going on anyways.

"It'll take a while to explain, but I suppose I can…" Zarx began.

This caused both Zejuto and Celeria to perk their ears up, and listen more intently. Judging by Zarx's intent, it seemed something _big _was happening, that was completely unknown to them. This was very well indeed, true.

"The Earth needs potential fighters for several reasons. For one, the inhabitants of the Crane temple are on the search for the Dragon Balls. Since they also have a great extent of knowledge on the happenings of the universe, I believe they are planning to somehow prep themselves for the current galactic war that is going on between countless planetary systems in this galaxy. According to theory, this war can spread to Earth at literally _any _moment. Since this planet is filled with weaklings, it is unlikely that we'll be able to defend it, unless we can do something about.

However, despite our current strengths, any warrior that approaches this planet will likely kill all of us without much of a problem, even for an average soldier. What I need you 2 to do is train as hard as you possibly can, and help me stop the Crane fighters from ever collecting all 7 of the dragon balls. It's a long shot, but I firmly believe that we can pull this off with the right mindset." Zarx explained.

The young teens were speechless. That same day, they had been living peacefully with their aunt. In only this short time frame, their homes were destroyed, their aunt died, and they are being depended on for stopping an alien invasion along with defeating a bunch of thugs searching for a wish.

"Well, I guess we'll have to start then, right?" Zejuto spoke up.

"We can stop by my place to train. It's great for training, plus I have some good training equipment." A voice emitted from the nearby cave. Ryal stepped out into the daylight, holding onto his shoulder. He was already walking fine even after that brutal fight just hours before, but it didn't look like he was up for another brawl.

"Yeah, I heard everything. Once I heal up, we can move back to my cottage in the east. It's better that we get some good shelter than to stay here to fight the Crane people." The blonde fighter stated as he leaned on the wall beside himself.

"In that case, I'll snatch a dragon ball from the temple before we get going. We shall train for roughly 4 months until the Tenkaichi Budokai comes around. There, we'll test our strength." Zarx added. After making his statement, he turned around, and began to walk away.

"I'll be off training by myself. I better not catch you 2 slacking off." The green man finished before running off.

Zejuto stretched his arms and started off in the same general direction Zarx headed in, "Well, I guess I'll be off training too then!" the saiya-jin exclaimed as he strolled off to his own area.

Celeria however, shifted her attention to Ryal. The young girl made her way down to the injured fighter, and halted right when she reached him. The blonde lad slowly drifted his eyes towards the girl, but remained silent.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

A small, faint smirked appeared on Ryal's face as his torn clothes and his long hair brushed back from a strong gust of wind. He gave her a small nod.

"Yeah, I'm nowhere near dead yet." He responded in a much quieter voice, seeing how she was right next to him. Even though he was alright, the soreness from being blasted by that massive attack wasn't very pleasant. In fact, he's still probably going to feel it for the next week or so. Though, the young man was quite glad that he didn't die back there. Luck finally came to him after travelling all of the way to West city, despite how short the trip actually lasted.

It most certainly wasn't in vain though.

A smile formed on the girl's face upon hearing his response, "Well, that's nice to hear then…" She responded sheepishly, at a loss of words yet again. Her smile soon faded afterwards.

"You ought to start training right about now. You wouldn't want Zarx to get angry at you, right?"

Celeria let out a wide grin and gave him a nod, "Right."

With that, she took off to her own area to train, and Ryal sluggishly made his way around the outer walls of the cave to catch a glimpse of everyone's training. He set himself down on the top of an open hill, and stared off into the sunset as the leaves brushed across the landscape.

The young warrior knew it was important to go to West city, but he never expected anything like this to happen. Now he wasn't just fighting for his friend, Kento. He was fighting for the sake of life on Earth.

* * *

End of Chapter 5

Expect a long time skip after this chapter. If you want, you can post what you _think _the battle levels of these characters are in the review section. By the end of this arc, I'll post the real battle levels. If your guess is the most accurate, I'll mention you in the last chapter of this arc!

Anyways, please review your thoughts on this story so far!


	9. Tenkaichi Budokai

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 8: Tenkaichi Budokai**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

4 months have already passed since Ryal's arrival at West City. The group's training flew by quickly, which of course, put everyone under the disbelief that the world tournament was right around the corner…. No, it was right now.

Ryal, Celeria, Zejuto, and Zarx all appeared before the temple, already signed in and ready to start off the preliminaries. Their time in the forest was done, and the weights were to be put aside to show off the results of the training. This also led the blonde lad's mind to wander off about his father. He won here several times and left undefeated. This alone spawned off several questions about Ryal himself.

"_How strong are the fighters here, exactly?"_

"_How would I compare myself now to my father all those years ago?"_

"_How will people react when they find out that such a successful fighter has his own son entering the tournament?"_

With questions like these, it only brought curiosity upon the young man. It would most certainly excite him to enter the big ring, which was strictly for fighters that made it into the final 8.

Now, it really depended on the method that was used to make it into the final 8. Sometimes they used a punch machine much to Ryal's disliking, or they did it the old fashion way and take a day for everyone to climb their way in the finals.

"Well… How does this all start?" Zejuto asked as he looked around the open area full of fighters participating in the tournament.

"This year they're using a punch machine, which means we shouldn't have anything to worry about when heading into the finals." Zarx answered him, which disappointed Ryal. He wanted win the tournament the way his father did, just so he can make him proud. Unfortunately, Ryal has yet to find out whether or not he has surpassed his own father at this point.

"Well that sucks." Ryal muttered under his breath. The twin saiya-jins didn't seem to be very happy either, but the 2 kept silent.

"Well, in that case…. Try not to break the punching machine." Ryal added, receiving a nod from the other fighters in agreement.

The group never seem to have really come to any disagreements or conflict, despite the fact that they were training together for several months. They never got into any fights, and they always shown proper courtesy to one another…. Well at least most of the time. They all seem to have never really become friends oddly enough, but more along the lines of coworkers. Rarely did he ever have any close interactions that were irrelevant to their training.

This was all because of Zarx's speech. They wouldn't have participated at the Tenkaichi Budokai, they wouldn't have trained together, Ryal would still be focused on taking on the Crane fighters, if he hadn't done it yet that is.

Several minutes later, a middle aged man made his way to the centre of the stupendously large ring carrying a microphone. As anyone would expect, he was the one who would announce everyone to the punch machines to get things started.

"Alright! All fighters gathered around the punching machines! Each one will have a set of numbers, and if yours falls under one of the set of numbers, that'll be the punching machine that you're doing! Now get going quickly, we only have 2 hours to do this."

Ryal pulled out his number that he received upon signing into the tournament, along with all of the other fighters doing the same. The blonde fighter read a '56' on his card.

"I have 56." Ryal announced to the group of fighters around him.

"132." Zarx stated flatly and simply before shoving the number into his gi, which was a simple black gi pants and tunic without a belt. This was only a temporary uniform since his usual clothing was much different. He didn't have a particular reason, but one could guess that it wasn't in a plausible condition.

"Looks like I have 58…" Zejuto followed up.

"23 for me." The saiya-jin girl added.

"Well Zejuto, its best we stick together since our numbers are close together. As for everyone else… Don't break the punching machine." Ryal spoke, squaring off his body with a random punch machine in the distance. The young saiya-jin nodded and took off after Ryal without a word, leaving Celeria and Zarx to remain.

However, Zarx simply turned around without having any words to say, and departed from where the group once was. Seeing this, Celeria walked off to locate her punching machine.

Over the duration of time, the first out of the 4 was Ryal, whom strolled over to the punching machine when he was asked to. The tall fighter crouched into a stance once he reached a proper position in front of his target, and fired off a light jab. Instantly, the machine began to calculate the power of his punch. The number ended off with a 363.

Once the number was displayed, the crowd was awestruck from his power. Ryal simply grinned, remembering his father's words in regard to back when he gave the punching machine a go.

"_The punching machine is one of two methods that you use to get into the finals of the tournament. If you ever find yourself trying out, never hit the damn thing too hard or else you'll break it. Not to mention, the crowd will come out as a bunch of annoying little pricks once they see what you're capable of. Why do you think I stopped doing tournaments all of those years ago?"_

Those were his father's exact words. He wasn't a very kind individual, and hated crowds. Now that Ryal was experiencing what his father has been through, he wasn't very fond of it either.

Within mere moments, Zejuto was the one that went up next. With a broad smile, he lunged straight at the machine and hit the machine with his full power. Unfortunately, he ended up breaking the machine, sending several metal parts tumbling straight to the ground and even causing some parts to go flying. Zejuto frowned slightly as he turned around to walk off the open area around the machine. Luckily, he was able to escape the scene before the crowd began to make comments.

The young saiya-jin teen approached Ryal, who appeared to be scratching his head. Ryal simply chuckled when he walked over to him, "My father once told me, never hit the damn thing too hard or else you'll break it."

"Yeah, I noticed. That thing is just silly; strength isn't the only thing that matters!" Zejuto exclaimed.

"Well, I hope the others remembered what I said earlier, because breaking them will only extend the time until the finals."

**-45 minutes later-**

Zarx was the last one to hit the punching machine, and the green man returned to the group of fighters once he spotted them.

"What did you get?" Zejuto asked the green man. The namekian glanced at him as he sat stood up against the wall, "290"

"Looks like everyone is in then! I don't think anyone got a number higher than 290!" The young saiya-jin exclaimed. Celeria simply smiled upon hearing the news.

"You're wrong, I saw a couple of high ones as well." Zarx responded.

The 3 raised their heads once they heard his words, expecting him to explain further into his statement.

"I didn't get a good look at their identities however, but they're definitely something to be taken seriously." He added, crossing his arms.

"We came here to test our training, so the fact that there are more strong fighters in the tournament will only benefit us, right?" the blonde fighter spoke up.

Zarx nodded in response to Ryal, ignoring other possibilities as well. To him, there wasn't a point in discussing more about such matters when all they could do was wait. Zejuto appeared to be fidgeting slightly, showing his impatience for the upcoming tournament.

Within a few moments, all of the fighters participating in the Tenkaichi Budokai had tried out. The people conducting the tournament each gathered the results written in their clipboard and sent the numbers straight to the highest chain of command. Once everything was recorded onto paper, and the fighters were decided, the announcer walked straight into the middle of the arena with a microphone in hand.

"Everyone listen up! The fighters for this year's Tenkaichi Budokai have been decided! If your name isn't called, you are to leave the exit as directed by the instructors over by the entrance." The announcer began, pointing straight towards the exit of the temple. The entire arena quickly went silent as the announcer began to speak. Every fighter was intent on listening, and not one nor more spoke a single word.

"The participants of this year's world tournament are the following: Sheryl Han, Zarx, Zejuto Linus, Eton Bradley, Celeria Linus, Ryal Flint, Kento Rodrigo, and Curtis Roscoe. Everyone else may leave."

Celeria and Zejuto let out a broad smile upon listening to the announcement, whilst Zarx appeared to have expected it to happen. Ryal on the other hand, was dumbfounded after listening to those words. Only 1 out of the 8 was unfamiliar to the blonde warrior.

Afterwards, the vast majority of the fighters have cleared out of the temple arena, leaving only the suggested 8 that the announcer called out.

Much to Ryal's expectations, the female bandit that he encountered during his travels was there, along with the one Crane pupils that surpassed Ryal's own abilities, whom nearly killed him in their last encounter. Surprisingly, Kento also made it into the finals despite the fact that the Orin temple was off training for a week.

The one that remained unknown to Ryal stood at the corner of the arena. He resembled the build of a grizzly bear, one that made even the tall fighter himself feel like a miniature being much like an ant. Of course, he wasn't worried about that; nobody was.

"To make things go along quicker due to the slight delay of one of our punching machines being destroyed, your matches were already determined. The first one to fight in front of the crowd will be _Ryal _and _Kento._ Next up, _Celeria _will be going up against _Sheryl. _Then it will be _Zejuto _versus _Curtis._ And last but not least, _Zarx _will be fighting _Eton_. Any questions?"

Nobody spoke a word, but rather kept their thoughts to themselves.

"Alright! The tournament shall be underway. Kento, Ryal, please make your way to the ring by going through the entrance as shown by the instructors."

Ryal slowly made his way to the arena, along with the opposing fighter that left soon afterwards. By the time the 2 had made their way to the open arena that was open and clear for the audience to see, the announcer of the tournament battles had already begun announcing the fighter's names. By names, he actually announced their _full _names, both first and last.

"Welcome, Ryal Flint and Kento Rodrigo to the ring! Both of these fighters have never participated in any of the past tournaments, but it looks like it's their lucky day! Because not many fighters can make it to the final 8 on their first try!" The announcer exclaimed through his microphone. The crowd went wild as much as anyone would expect. Kento seemed to have welcomed the audience, but Ryal was already becoming irritated by the crowd, finding them to be a bother.

"Ryal Flint happens to be the son of a well achieved fighter that fought in the Tenkaichi Budokai several times, never losing a single year. Rodetem Flint went undefeated for 4 years before he dropped out. Nobody knew why he left, but it is an honour to see his son compete in the world tournament much like his own father."

The crowd had yet again continued to cheer louder than ever, making the blonde fighter cringe at the constant screaming. However, Ryal's main concern wasn't the people watching the fight.

It was Kento. He grew his hair out, and wore a completely different uniform. He wore green gi pants and a vest, with a thin red belt overtop. There was a simple on the front of his vest, but he couldn't make out what it was. Nonetheless, Kento grew tremendously in muscle build, and his hair grew out to be jet black and spikey, with a strand going over his face. The rest of the hair seemed to have waved off towards the left side of his head. Lastly, the 6 circles that were once planted on Kento's forehead was now gone. _"Did Kento leave the Orin temple?" _the young fighter thought.

Other than that, it was definitely his old friend back from the temple. Judging by his attitude, he must have been inclined to see Ryal again.

The announcer then continued to speak, though describing Kento rather than Ryal himself.

"Kento on the other hand, used to train under the Orin temple for several years in the hopes of becoming stronger. Though due to an accident, the fighter left his old school and travelled over the sea to Muten Roshi, whom held the title of king of martial arts for centuries! From there on for the past 5 months, he trained hard under Muten Roshi to become the strongest fighter he could be, not only physically, but mentally!"

Ryal's eyes widened, awestruck to hear what Kento had been through these past days. It was no surprise that Kento actually made it into the final 8. He too now knows Kamesennin's style, but rather he was taught directly from the master himself.

"Now that we have a brief understanding of these 2 combatants, the fight will be underway in just a moment." The announcer finished off, strolling around the edges of the ring.

Ryal instantly shot into his fighting stance, followed by Kento shortly after.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Ryal. How's life treating you?" Kento asked him from across the ring.

Ryal grinned in response, "Things haven't gone as smoothly as I wanted, but I'm doing just fine now. I didn't know you'd ditch Orin temple and travel over to Muten Roshi's island. I thought he doesn't accept most students."

"Not me, I was allowed to train under him. The only disadvantage is the fact that I'm already done with his training." Kento replied.

**-Meanwhile-**

Zarx stood on the rooftop of the temple to watch the fight unfold. The twin saiya-jins on the other hand, appeared to be sitting beside the namekian fighter. Celeria watched the arena intently, while Zejuto tapped his finger on the straw rooftop impatiently.

"It looks like Ryal actually knows this one… Perhaps he'll be useful on our conquest to defeat the Cranes." Zarx stated in his usual, serious demeanour.

"Geez Zarx, why do you worry so much about that? Think about something… fun for once." Zejuto responded.

"Why won't you stop acting like there's nothing wrong with this world, and that we should just ignore every problem that exists?" the green man retorted. Zejuto sighed as he lay down on the straw building, resting his head on the palm of his hands.

"Maybe you should just let it go for a day or so." He advised. The young teen took in a deep breath of air as he closed his eyes, unmindful of the fight that was about to begin.

"Zejuto, aren't you going to watch?" Celeria asked her blood brother. She received a smirk from her own twin, whom spoke, "Eh, I'm kinda tired from just waiting here all day. Wake me up when it's my turn to kick some ass."

The young girl simply rolled her eyes at Zejuto. She then prompt herself on her elbows and drifted her eyes off to the fight that was about to start.

* * *

End of chapter 8. Be sure to leave a review of your thoughts so far on this chapter! Who do you think will win?


	10. Preliminaries

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 9: Preliminaries**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

* * *

**Chapter 9:**

The crowd seemed to be calming down as time went by, though voices and whispers can still be heard from the arena where Ryal and Kento both stood. The blond haired man became relieved of the audience's endless chatter that rang his ears like a bell. It was only a moment before the match would begin.

Meanwhile, the two stood around talking during the wait, since they were of course long-time friends that hadn't spoken to each other in months. Ryal shown a little bit of happiness in knowing that the Ex-Orin temple student had evolved much better in the past months. With a faint grin, the tall lad began to speak, "So what brings you to the tournament anyway?"

Kento shined up a smile once he recalled his previous meeting with his master, "Oh, Muten Roshi insisted me to test out my training here."

"So you also came here for the same reason, huh?" Ryal mused.

Kento chuckled a bit before sharpening his stance, "What'd I expect from you? Always locking yourself in the woods and exercising non-stop. Don't you ever consider taking a break?"

"No. And I don't plan on stopping either." The blond fighter responded, recalling what Zarx told him beforehand. If anything, training is more important than ever. Who wouldn't try something to prepare for a bunch of alien invaders and greedy, selfish Cranes?

Kento sighed in defeat, "Well…. Just go easy on me, ok?"

Ryal nodded slightly in response to Kento's request, though a bit reluctant to do so. Suddenly, the announcer interjected their conversation through the loud speakers placed in hidden location across the tournament area.

"YOU MAY BEGIN!"

Kento immediately charged at Ryal without a single thought, and rushed in with a flying side kick. The young man saw this attack coming and brought his arms up, forming an 'X' in front of his head. Fortunately for Ryal, Kento landed his kick right on his forearms, which did only a little bit of damage. Kento instantly leaped back several feet to cover distance between the 2. However, Ryal quickly rushed in and fired off a straight punch with half speed. Kento narrowly dodged the strike and fired up an upset punch to the rib cage area, causing Ryal to be caught off guard and back away slightly.

The shorter fighter caught his opportunity and the fighter in the green uniform launched forward to land another punch, but not before being sent backwards flying by Ryal's turn side kick. Ryal instantly persisted after Kento by leaping forward, and firing a knife hand front strike to his cheek, which also seem to have landed.

Kento once again was sent flying, though quickly recovered by slamming his one hand on the ground and flipping over to his feet. Upon his landing, he entered a defensive fighting stance to guard any follow up attacks, but only to see his opponent standing on the other side of the ring.

"Kento, you hit a lot harder than you used to." The taller warrior noted, slowly deepening his fighting stance as he spoke.

"And I couldn't expect anything less from you, Ryal. Your moves are fluent and controlled just like they were all those times."

Then, Kento switched into a more offensive stance, "Though we should kick things up a notch."

Ryal raised a brow from his statement, but lost time to think since Kento immediately began to dash at him with his full might. Surprisingly, Kento landed an elbow right to Ryal's chest, causing him to fall backwards on to the ground, sliding back a few feet. Right after he hit the ground, Kento rushed in and fired off a straight jab at Ryal, which he managed to dodge before flipping on his feet. However, Kento ended up punching the arena floor, making a crack form from where he struck.

Once the tall lad landed on his feet, he attempted to sweep the opposing fighter from his feet, though Kento quickly leaped up in time and fired off a roundhouse kick towards Ryal's head. He blocked the incoming kick with his forearm before catching it. Once the blond combatant grabbed hold of his leg, he swung his body across the ring, aiming for a ring out. However, Kento quickly recovered right when he was on the brink of reaching the end of the ring by slamming his hands onto the floor, and ricocheting high into the air.

**-Meanwhile-**

Zarx kept a close eye on the fight, formulating future plans and thoughts. He was making up his mind on whether he should adopt the new fighter that is currently in battle with Ryal. To him, the new man wasn't all that great, since it was obvious that Ryal is going easy on him.

The young Saiya-jins seemed to have different thoughts though. Zejuto paid little attention to the fight, whilst Celeria appeared to be enjoying much like any other person would.

"Why is Ryal so slow? Just finish him off already." Zejuto mumbled under his breath.

"Zejuto, Wait for your turn." Zarx snapped, much like an instructor would. Zejuto responded with a sigh, but didn't say anything.

"Anyways, I suggest you two stretch a little before your next fight, particularly you Celeria." Zarx suggested as he observed the fight.

The young teen girl drifted her attention towards Zarx upon listening to his words, "How come?"

"It seems to me that every fighter in this tournament is capable of super human abilities. The one Ryal is up against is among with weaker ki levels. The one you're up against seems to have a higher ki level." The Namekian informed her.

"What about me?" Zejuto interjected, curious to know how strong his next opponent is.

"He's the weakest fighter here." The green fighter stated bluntly, earning a frown from Zejuto.

"That blows, I guess I'll just have to deal then."

"You needn't worry; your next opponent is either me or the man who nearly murdered Ryal… So you'll be getting more than you need anyway."

Zejuto's eyes immediately popped wide open, remembering how cruel and overwhelming powerful the man was. His excitement grew, but that didn't stop his nerves from becoming completely shaken and wrecked.

**- During the fight-**

Kento ended up halting in mid-air, displaying his ability of flight for the entire audience to see. Ryal grinned when he witnessed this, and slowly levitated his way up to Kento's height.

"Wow, I didn't know you can fly too." He commented, halting in front of his opponent.

"Yup, and you'd be surprised at how well I can do it too! Muten Roshi said it was one of my strong points!" Kento exclaimed. To prove his statement, he began to fly around the air space of the ring. As he flew around, Ryal kept an eye on him, stunned by his flight abilities, and even envious too. The taller one was poor in flight after all.

"_On second thought, maybe I should stay on the arena…" _Ryal thought to himself, levitating himself to the ground.

Kento landed soon afterwards, with a wide grin on his face, "There was also something else that I forgot to mention…"

Ryal perked up from hearing his words leave his mouth. The fighter's attention was fixed on Kento, though he didn't speak a word.

Kento had already begun to perform his technique without a moment to spare. He deepened his stance; particularly an L-stance with the front knee bent a bit more. The combatant extended his arms forward, and brought his 2 palms side by side, facing directly forward. Slowly but smoothly, he brought his hands to his hips, and cupped them just a bit.

"Kaa…" Kento began, beginning to focus his ki energy. Ryal's eyes widened like a full moon, and instantly went into a guarding stance. The blond man refrained himself from attacking, though he was rather curious to see how far Kento has come.

"Me…."

"Haaa…."

"Meeee…"

Kento began to grit his teeth as a petite, blue orb formed within the space of his hands. It increased in size steadily, and consistently. Within a short time frame, Kento shot his palms forward, pointing sharply towards his opponent.

"HAAA!"

Suddenly, the orb increased in size dramatically, and a blue beam shot straight out of the orb, spiraling towards Ryal rapidly. However, it wasn't a very strong energy wave in comparison to the ones Ryal himself encountered beforehand.

The tall lad shot his hands forward and halted the energy wave. After he stopped the wave in its tracks, he leaned backwards and pressed his feet against the undershaft of the wave. With full force, Ryal reflected the wave right into the sky before flipping back to his feet, and regaining his composure.

Kento on the other hand, was found panting, still in the position in which he fired his attack.

Ryal grinned as he watched the wave disappear into the air, before fixing his attention to his opponent. Instantly, Ryal rushed in on Kento at full speed without holding a single cell in his body back, and landed a right straight punch to Kento's chest area, causing him to stumble back on his feet. Unfortunately for him, he ended up dropping out of the ring, concluding the match.

"The winner is Ryal!" The announcer boomed, causing the crowd to erupt into cheers and shouts.

Despite the eardrums in the lad's ears to hurt like the blazes, the victorious fighter went to the pinnacle of his abilities to not react disturbingly to the audience's ear-numbing yells and shouts. He focused his thoughts towards his friend Kento, and dropped down out of the ring. He extended his hand in front of the fallen warrior. Gladly, Kento took his hand with a grin, and stood up to his feet.

"I knew you'd do that eventually. I'm just glad that I can land a _hit._" Kento admitted.

Ryal chuckled from Kento's statement, remembering how humble and timid he was. "I didn't think you can perfect that technique in a few months. It took me a few years to get the Kamehameha wave down." The victorious fighter brought up.

"Yeah… Like when you were 6." The shorter one hinted, showing a little bit of annoyance due to his envy towards Ryal's abilities. Kento himself always believed that he could never surpass him, since he was a lot more privileged in martial arts than he was himself. Ryal did train under a fighter that was arguably, the best of his time, whilst Kento trained at a regular martial arts school.

"Do you mind if I introduce you to a few friends I made along the way?" The taller fighter suggested, as the two walked along the grass around the perimeter of the ring.

Kento simply shrugged and tightened his belt, "Sure."

***A few minutes later***

"Wait, so he's your friend?" Zejuto asked for clarification.

Ryal nodded his head, "Yup, and he managed to go from a wimp to a worthy fighter in only a few months."

The blond man drifted his attention to the green man, Zarx, whom looked at Ryal with scepticism. Obviously, the Namekian disliked his idea of letting him in on the team. The others however, didn't seem to really care due to their younger, and more free mind.

"Isn't he a bit weak?" Zarx spoke up, while crossing his arms as if he were the leader of the whole gang. To Ryal, it reminded him of his own father. If anything were to be decided by him, Rodetem will be the first to ever question the tall lad.

"So what? How about we see how he'll turn out in a few months prior time. I'm confident that he can catch up." Ryal responded. The Namekian placed a hand on his chin, formulating his next decision. Within a few moments, he simply nodded.

Ryal grinned and turned his body towards Kento, "There, you can live at my house now."

Kento smiled and nodded his head, though he refrained from speaking.

Meanwhile, Zejuto turned his head towards his blood related sister, "You're up sis. Good luck."

Celeria shot her brother a smile before getting up to her feet. It's only a matter of time before the next match is underway, so she figured she'd arrive there early.

"Celeria, watch your feet. The next fighter isn't a cakewalk… I fought her a while ago. She isn't exactly somebody you'd want to be up against." Ryal informed her.

The young Saiya-jin girl looked over at Ryal, and gave him a small, but assuring nod. Afterwards, she turned her head towards the ring, only to hear the next announcement.

"Next up! Celeria versus… Sheryl! May the following fighters enter the ring please!"

With a look of determination, Celeria leaped her way to the ring, looking forward to the first fight of the day. She is testing out the results of her previous training after all.

* * *

End of Chapter 9! Expect the next chapter to be action packed… and long! The next one shall be the last of the very first arc! After that, the plot shall thicken 100 fold! I did plan everything out for ways to go yet… You'll be surly surprised!

As always, I appreciate reviews. I may respond to them if I find it worth replying to.


	11. On the Brink of War Part 1

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 10: On the Brink of War Part 1**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

**Note: I was going to write an insanely long chapter, but I figured it's best that I would separate this into 2 parts. The next 2 parts will be the last chapters of this current arc, and I'll place the battle levels of the characters for the next 2 chapters. Expect a shit load of action, since several fights will be going on for the next 2 chapters/parts. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 10:**

Sheryl appeared to be awaiting Celeria's arrival at the ring. The younger girl stepped up to the ring, and looked forward towards her opponent. She didn't know anything about her, except the fact that she was a tough one to come by. All that meant to her was, the fact that she has to go all out from the beginning to end. Bullshit has no place in the ring.

Sheryl glanced over at Celeria's tail wrapped around her waist, which intrigued her slightly. She simply smirked in reaction to this, "So you're a Saiya-jin eh? You people aren't as tough as you come out to be." She noted, crossing her arms.

Celeria simply gritted her teeth, though only showed it slightly. The Saiya-jin teen didn't say anything, but stare down at the scar-faced woman.

"Well, I hope you're ready. I dislike it when a fool comes onto the ring and doesn't stand a chance. So show me what you're made of." Sheryl added.

"Now LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!" The announcer intervened.

Celeria was the first to make her move, leaping straight at her opponent. Sheryl was surprised at her charge, since she attacked her by jumping, and flying parallel to the ground. Only a superhuman fighter would attack like that.

Once Celeria got within melee range, she fired a quick flurry of punches, in which Sheryl rolled along with. Eventually, Celeria began to throw kicks into the mix of punches as well, mostly made up of simple front snap kicks and roundhouse kicks.

Sheryl, despite being busy with her hands managed to catch her roundhouse kick, and throw a straight punch to her face. This made Celeria stumble back a few feet, and give herself some air to breath.

However, the younger girl immediately went back to attacking Sheryl. She led in with a jumping 360 turn side kick to the head, which Sheryl blocked with her left forearm. Despite the fact that she blocked the kick, it made a strain on her hand. It turns out that her strength might make up for her technique.

Sheryl then countered by flipping herself upside down, and landing a roundhouse kick to her head whilst using her right hand to balance herself on the ground. Celeria was shot into the air, and Sheryl quickly regained her balance and attacked the opposing fighter.

Celeria quickly recovered herself in mid-air, and instantly foresaw Sheryl's charge. To counter her charge, she fired down an energy wave at the scar-faced woman.

The charging warrior widened her eyes in shock as the wave quickly came in on her. Due to her luck, Sheryl managed to fly off to the side of the wave, and letting it hit the ground which left an impressive explosion. She didn't waste any time, and flew right past Celeria, flanking her with a front kick to the Saiya-jin's skull. The young teen cried out in pain and was sent flying straight into the ground, leaving an explosion upon impact. Luckily for her, she landed in the middle of the ring. The fight wasn't over.

Sheryl grinned as her attack was successful, "Oi, is that all you got? I'd be quite disappointed if you're already beaten!" She called out to her, sounding just as condescending as she did months ago.

Slowly, Celeria stood up from the ground. She took a step out of the small crater she made, taking a quick breather. Sheryl landed on the ground as she witnessed her get up, crossing her arms in the process. "There you go, already up and fighting again." Sheryl commented.

Again, Celeria persisted in ignoring her, and focused her full attention on the battle, as if it were an entity itself. She let her instinct take over for most of the time, though this single moment will be different.

The Saiya-jin bent her knees and assumed a horse stance, with her arms fully stretch out in front of her and her palms facing forward directly. Once she was satisfied with her position, she shouted, "Ni Bunkatsu!"

Suddenly, 3 figures spawned in a bright light beside her. The light quickly cooled down, revealing clones of Celeria herself. All of them seem to move differently, and have a mind of their own. What's even more deadly is their ki levels didn't split… They remained the same as the user herself.

Sheryl widened her eyes in astonishment, witnessing something that she least expected. One Saiya-jin like her was fine, but 4 may be a different story. Not to mention, she didn't have to split her ki level to make them.

Before Sheryl could collect her thoughts, the clones began to race over to her, without any real strategy. They all attacked similarly to a mass attack; unorganised with one thing in mind, which was defeat the target.

Sheryl ducked under the first incoming kick, and blocked an incoming left hook with her forearm, but caught a double hammer fist to the head, causing her to double over. Suddenly, the bandit received a knee to the face, which sent her stumbling back. Then one of the clones raced over behind her and delivered a side kick to her backside, which sent her forward tumbling to the ground.

Immediately, another clone rushed in. However, Sheryl countered by attempting to trip her feet. She missed narrowly, as Celeria leaped up in time and delivered a flying axe kick to the side of her mid-section, causing her to gawk and yelp in pain.

The Celeria clone calmly took a step back, giving Sheryl a chance to get back up. None of the clones said a word however, though gave her a look that implied, _"So how does it feel to kiss the ground?"_

The bandit gritted her teeth in anger as she got to her feet, eyeing all of the clones that stood on the ring. The audience appeared to be more silent than a quite midnight, with an announcer that is too shocked to even udder a word. Flying and shooting beams is one thing, but cloning yourself without the influence of technology is something else.

"_Fine, I'll just have to focus on one of you, and throw you out of the ring." _The woman thought, as she observed the clones that stood before her.

After a moment passed by, the clones attacked again, with the first one throwing a punch. Instinctively, Sheryl growled and inched herself out of the way of the punch, and delivered an earth shattering turn side kick to her mid-section. Not only did this send her flying back, but the clone was destroyed instantly, along with two other clones. This only left Celeria herself, without the help of her clones.

Sheryl's became shocked at the demise of the clones, and grinned at this fact. Celeria stood still, who also appeared to be surprised at the ultimate weakness of her own technique.

"Heh, I never knew such a technique could present bark but no bite." The bandit stated flatly.

Right after Sheryl finished her sentence, Celeria charged at her yet again, attempting to attack her without any strategy or tactic in mind; just blind movement.

"_Of course she'll do that…" _Sheryl thought as she timed her opponent's movement.

Once the young teen got within striking distance, Sheryl sidestepped her following punch and sent a powerful knee to her stomach, causing Celeria to yelp. Before she could even make another movement, an elbow came crashing down on the girl's back, which smashed her into the ground.

Sheryl simply took a few steps back, observing the fallen warrior for a moment.

"She's unconscious." The fighter concluded. Quickly, the announcer climbed onto the ring and raced over to Celeria, and bent over. After a few seconds, the answer became clear.

"It seems that Celeria lost by knock out! So the winner is… Sheryl!" The announcer cheered. The crowd of course, cheered for the intense battle that the two females produced. Of course, it is only one among several that are yet to be showcased in front of the crowd.

Zarx simply sighed, "Well there you have it. You weren't kidding about that woman's strength. Celeria could have beaten her if she was actually thinking about the fight though." He noted.

"Yeah, but she's only fourteen. Give her a break." Ryal responded.

Zarx narrowed his eyes and turned towards him, "So? You're sixteen. There isn't much of a difference there yet you beat her a few months back."

"Hey, I'm turning seventeen in a few weeks. Besides, can't you cut them some slack? It's not like they were personally trained by the best fighter of the century." Ryal responded calmly.

Zarx sighed and turned his full attention to Ryal, "That doesn't matter… Don't you realize that aliens will attack this planet at any moment?"

Zejuto, who appeared to be laying back and slacking off the whole time spoke up, "You said that four months ago, green man."

"Maybe you should be getting your sister and preparing for your next fight instead of sitting on your ass and running your mouth, kid." Zarx retorted, but calmly. He can speak his mind, yet still keep his cool.

Zejuto simply chuckled and jumped to his feet, "Yeah yeah, I'll do that."

**- A few minutes later –**

Zejuto already positioned himself out of the way, watching the Tenkaichi Budokai stuff clean up the last of the mess from the previous fight. His opponent was still unknown to the boy, since he didn't pay attention to the announcement earlier. Of course it didn't really matter though, since his opponent was the weakest out of them all.

"Next up! We have Curtis versus Zejuto! Since Zejuto is already here, Curtis please enter the ring!" The announcer commanded.

Once the message was released, a large, buff man with the build of a grizzly bear walked onto the ring. He was absolutely massive, and towered over Zejuto like comparing a sky scraper to a mouse. However, this didn't seem to faze Zejuto. In fact, the young teen appeared to be excited and full of energy as he usually is.

"Oh, so you're the weakest guy here huh?" Zejuto asked the enormous man. Curtis narrowed his eyes and stared down at Zejuto, "The weakest? My biceps are twice the size of your body." He stated in a deep voice.

"May the match begin!"

"Well, looks like the match his already started. Guess I should end this quickly." Zejuto mused as he stared straight up at the gigantic person. The Saiya-jin leaped high into the air, and quickly delivered a flying side kick to the man's face, which sent him flying out of bounds. Without time to recover, Curtis ended up on the grass outside of the ring.

"Like I said, the weakest." Zejuto repeated, landing on the ground after he committed his attack. The teen simply turned his back and leaped onto the roof again, where his fellow warriors stood.

"Curtis is out of bounds. That means Zejuto wins by ring out!"

As usual, the crowd began to cheer at the victory of Zejuto, which led Ryal to covering his ears, whilst everyone else remained unchanged since the beginning of the fight.

"Alright, good luck Zarx. You're up next." Zejuto informed the Namekian. Zarx didn't even response or acknowledge Zejuto's statement, and already went off to the ring. Ryal on the other hand, gave a wave at Zejuto. Of course, the teen waved back and sat down on the roof, continuing to slack off just like he did before.

Ryal then turned his head towards Kento, he appeared to be sitting next to the unconscious girl. "So how's she doing?"

Kento raised his head up to see the blond fighter, "She's fine. Just a little rest is all."

**- Moments later –**

"The last match until the semi-finals will be Zarx versus Eton! May the fighters enter the ring please!"

Zarx, who was leaning up against the wall, looked up upon hearing the announcement. The green man began to walk down the path to the ring. Eton soon began to follow him from within the temple. The two fighters climbed up the steps to take their positions in the ring. Both of them stared each other down, and never spoke a word. All they did was remain still until the announcer would give the call.

"This may make an interesting battle folks! For this side, we have a green skinned man. Nothing is known about him, but we all know that he is an alien from outer space! On the other side of the ring, we have one of the highest ranking fighters under the Crane schools found in the west end of the world! A lot is to be expected from this fight folks!" The announcer spoke into the crowd. However, the two warriors seemed to be unfazed from the announcer's statement.

"It looks like the both of these men are ready to give it their all… So let the fight begin!"

"_Alright, this is it." _Zarx thought as he instantly shot into his stance, with his hands held slightly low, and his stance was somewhat neutral. He seemed to be very relaxed, displaying a very soft style as opposed to a hard style like Eton's.

Eton was the first to make an attack, by charging in with inhuman speed. Judging by his act, the man must have known Zarx from months back, thus he would charge at such a speed.

The demi Saiya-jin attacked with a furious combo of two-fingers knife hand thrusts directed towards vulnerable spots on the body, such as the neck or ribcage area. Since his assault was swift and rapid, he caught several glancing blows as he kept dodging the strikes. While Eton attacked Zarx, the green man taking several steps back in order to avoid all of the hits. Eventually, the Namekian was reaching the edge of the ring.

Zarx quickly ducked down and swept Eton's feet, causing the man to trip over. Once this was successful, Zarx immediately tried to escape by moving off to the side, though quickly got caught by Eton's leg. The man was sent spiralling into the air from the kick, though quickly shot his arm forward and extended it for dozens of feet. He latched onto Eton's forearm and began to shrink his arm to carry his opponent closer. Once he was within range, Zarx attempted to land an axe kick to the half Saiya-jin's head.

Unfortunately for the green warrior, Eton foresaw his move and jolted his body off to the side, knocked his arm off of him in the process of dodging. After moving out of the way, Eton launched an inward crescent kick towards Zarx's head. The green fighter narrowly ducked under the incoming kick.

Quickly, Zarx shot two fingers forward towards Eton's chest, though stopped the strike before it could land. Since Eton could sense his movements, he didn't move a muscle, whilst he kept a sharp eye on the Namekian.

Zarx smirked at this, getting exactly what he wanted.

"Mankankosappo!" Zarx exclaimed. A yellow beam surrounded by brilliant purple energy spiralling around the centre of the blast shot out of the two fingers, and zoomed straight for Eton's chest. The Crane fighter was quickly caught off guard as he was hit point blank, and got sent further away from the ring.

Eton continued to be blasted backwards, grinding his teeth together. Within seconds, the man shifted his body sideways and backed off, letting the beam burst off higher into the atmosphere. The beam had ripped through his traditional tunic, leaving a burnt mark from where the Mankankosappo hit. Without a word, the demi Saiya-jin ripped his long tunic off, leaving him shirtless.

Taking advantage of the situation, Zarx shot a thick yellow energy wave directed at the opposing fighter, aiming to hit him out of the air and get a ring out. The energy wave swept over Eton's body, causing the green skinned man to grin.

However, Eton left an after image at that very spot.

The Crane pupil appeared beside Zarx, and launches a killer upset punch to his gut, causing Zarx to spit out blood in that instant and double over.

From below, Ryal's pupils shrunk, astonished by the man's speed.

"_How can anyone move so fast in the air?" _Ryal thought, keeping a steady attention to the fight that displayed before him.

Zejuto also happened to be paying close attention to the battle, marvelled by his sudden burst of speed.

"Wow, I never thought anyone can move so _fast." _Zejuto commented.

Eton leniently gave Zarx a moment to regain his composure after taking the blow to his gut. He slowly lifted his head up to see Eton looking down at him with his cold stare. The green fighter couldn't even see it coming.

"How'd you…?" Zarx began, before being smacked in the head with a lightning speed axe kick. Zarx hit the centre of the ring like a meteorite crashing through the Earth's atmosphere. Upon landing, debris shot up from his harsh landing and rocks fired into the air like setting off several pounds of TNT.

Eton's face expression remained unchanged as he lowered himself to one end of the ring, crossing his arms in the process.

"As expected from a former Namekian. You came here to warn these people about the war spreading. Don't hide it from me." Eton stated firmly, only loud enough for his former opponent to hear.

Zarx lifted his head off of the ground, with his ears perking up from Eton's words, "What!?"

Eton didn't reply and strolled over to Zarx, and lifted him up by the collar. "Are you planning to stop us?"

Zarx gritted his teeth upon listening to the man's words. "Bastard… How did you know that!?"

"I know what you did last time. Now tell me, or I'll be forced to kill you right now…. I prefer to leave without a mess." Eton demanded in a low tone, careful to only let Zarx listen to his words.

These scumbags are planning to wish for immortality and leave this planet victim to the most monumental war ever recorded, yet here he was being outclassed by a single man.

He trained to the pinnacle of his own abilities ever since he escaped the dying Namek, and landed on the only planet that has the potential to end the dreadful war that nearly caused his race to go extinct.

"_These bastards are taking the one and only thing to stop this entire endless conflict, and using it all for themselves. How can this scumbag even attempt to do such a ridiculous thing?"_

Zarx's eyes grew, and set them on the man before him. He was bloodshot, as his vision soon began to dye in red, fixing his full attention on Eton. Without a single word, he shot an uppercut to the half Saiya-jin's chin powered with rage. Eton stumbled back from the strike, and quickly recovered. However, the Namekian already closed the gap and sent Eton flying with a powerful roundhouse kick to the head.

"I'll die before I let this war continue on. I came here to stop the madness that killed most of my people, and here you are thinking that you're entitled to everything!" Zarx spat, going straight into a fighting stance.

Eton climbed to his feet, keeping his eyes fixed on Zarx, though refrained from attacking as he desired to listen to what the man had to say.

"I can't believe it! You're willing to give yourself the power to live for as long as you want in exchange to letting billions of people die!?" The Namekian-born fighter continued, expecting an answer from his former opponent.

Eton didn't respond to Zarx's question, keeping silent as his stare pierced through the green combatant.

Zarx cursed under his breath, and charged straight at the Crane fighter. He led off with a straight jab to the head, though Eton ducked underneath the punch and planted an elbow in Zarx's ribcage area. He doubled over slightly from the elbow strike, and immediately received a bone-shattering kick to the head.

The Namekian was forced into the air by the kick, and landed on the edge of the ring. His eyes appeared to be rolled over, and he was left unconscious.

"It appears that Zarx had been K.O'd by that single kick, so Eton will be advancing to the semi-finals!"

Eton, unfazed by the recent fight simply turned to towards the temple and made his way back to the dojang.

"_He didn't say a thing… Master is sure to be disappointed."_

**- 30 minutes later, break time for semi-finals –**

Zarx was still knocked out by his previous match, and remained in the clinic due to his condition, meanwhile the rest of the fighters were still located on the roof of the temple, relaxing for the 40 minute break.

Ryal was found lying down with his hands resting on his belly, staring up at the clouds. The area was actually quiet for once, which made things a lot more relaxing. Zejuto appeared to be sleeping, while Celeria was still unconscious from her previous match. So he talked to Kento alone for once, trying to catch up on their affairs.

"Wow… I didn't think it would end up _that _bad." Kento commented, after listening to Ryal explain to him the whole mess that was occurring.

"Apparently it is. You can ask Zarx about it later, he knows pretty much everything." Ryal responded.

"I didn't know that there were so many strong fighters out there. I thought I was one of the strongest on the whole planet once Muten Roshi was finished training me. Then after coming here, almost everyone outclasses me." Kento spoke, pondering about the sheer power of the previous fighters that fought.

Ryal chuckled at Kento's comment, "You may think we're all strong, but the aliens that are fighting in the war would make us look like fish fry. All we can do is hunt down the dragon balls and train as much as we can."

The shorter fighter simply sighed, disappointed in his own strength. He wanted to be stronger, he truly did. However, his power pales in comparison to the others. Ryal was a descendant of a revolutionary fighter. Zarx was an alien that originated from a powerful race of people. Zejuto and Celeria are also a part of a powerful race of people.

"_What am I then?" _Kento thought to himself.

"…If the world is in such huge trouble, why did you bring me along? You know I'm only going to slow you down…" Kento questioned.

Ryal rolled over onto his belly and faced his full attention to Kento at this point, staring him dead in the eye, "That is because you're my friend."

The black haired lad was left speechless by his words, and was still left to why he would do such a thing. If he knew him well enough, Ryal would try to make the best decision. That reason couldn't possibly change his mind.

However, Ryal didn't stop there.

"I firmly believe that you can help us out. All it takes is a correct mindset, and dedication. Sitting there thinking that you can't do this isn't going to get you anywhere, but focusing your mind and body on the problems that lay ahead is what will build you as a person. My father always told me to shoot for the moon. In other words, it means you must pick a big goal and aim for it. Even if you don't achieve it, you'll still grow as a person. Sitting there and doubting yourself isn't going to change anything."

Upon listening to this, Kento let out a wide grin and nodded his head in agreement to his message.

"Thanks, I honestly needed that… A lot."

Ryal simply gave him a nod and rolled back onto his back again, continuing to stare into the clouds. Before he could let his mind drift off, an announcer was being made.

"For all of the semi-finalists to hear! We all know that the Tenkaichi Budokai always gives out zeni as a reward for making it this far! But today, we have a bonus that will go along with the zeni! We present you… This!"

Suddenly, two of the staff members rushed onto the stage holding something that was under a cloak, though it appeared to be round. Ryal immediately shifted his attention to the announcer on the ring, with the staff members behind him. Kento sat up from behind the blond man and looked over his shoulder to see what was going on.

The cloak was lifted, and revealed an orange ball sitting on top of a pillow, with what appeared to be one star in the middle of the ball.

"If you win the tournament… You win a dragon ball!"

The blond fighter widened his eyes in shock, immediately coming to several realizations at that single moment. Thoughts began to rush through his mind, and they weren't very good either.

"Damn it, now you can't afford to lose. If that's what I'm hearing, then it's that Crane fighter who is trying to get that dragon ball by winning!" Kento exclaimed in astonishment.

"Ryal, I think you're the only one that could possibly win against that Crane guy. So please… Do me a favour and beat the living tar out of that guy?"

The tall fighter chuckled at his request, "Sure, I'll pull it off. I need to take down the girl who took down Celeria though, which shouldn't be too much of a problem."

The black haired student of Kamesennin smiled half-heartedly, hoping that everything would run smoothly from then on.

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End of chapter 10

Well, stay tuned for part 2 which shall bring this arc to a closing, and start up the second arc!

**Battle levels for chapters 1 through 8 (Pre time skip)**

**Ryal: 215**

**Kento: 12**

**Lucas: 33**

**Collin: 17**

**Crane Fighters: 100 – 150**

**Sheryl: 180**

**Zejuto: 155**

**Celeria: 165**

**Eton: 320**

**Zarx: 240**

**Rodetem: 520**

Don't forget to leave a review!


	12. On the Brink of War Part 2

**Defenders of Sol  
Chapter 11: On the Brink of War Part 2**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. That belongs to Akira Toriyama. All of the original characters in this fanfiction belong to either me, or the selected users found on chapter 1 and the prologue. Please support the official release.

**Note: My writing style may change a bit, so don't be surprised if everything seems a bit… off. So I suggest you all reset your expectations and enjoy the last chapter of the arc!**

* * *

**Chapter 11:**

"Now we're on to the semi-finals of the Tenkaichi Budokai! Judging by how well the contestants performed in the previous rounds, what we will see next may boost that high-paced action 10 fold! Next up we have the child of a world-renowned fighter Ryal, up against the powerful robotic-armed lady Sheryl! May the fighters please enter the ring!"

Those words rang through the blond man's ears like loud doorbell. The only thing worse was the constantly cheering crowd, as if it were necessary to scream at the top of your lungs about a couple of people stepping onto a platform. If only this tournament can lack the audience, and lack the dragon ball on the line. The last thing he needed was an asshole that would win the damn thing and take the dragon ball home only to be murdered a day later by the Cranes who would snatch the thing and high-tail it out of there.

Of course, who would have thought that this kind of thing was hidden from the entire public? How can everyone _not _know that an all-out galactic war is spreading right under their noses? Perhaps there's something he has yet to discover that would explain that.

The tall warrior travelled to the side of the ring, and planted his left foot on top of the platform, pushing himself up onto the tile floor. Ryal lifted his head to see his opponent waiting for him to take his position on the ring, and receive the announcer's call for the match. The lad wasn't very fond of this match since there was something huge on the line now. Not to mention, the crowd's endless cries. Thank goodness he was gifted by growing up in the middle of nowhere.

"I see you're still up and kicking. So how's it coming along being a bandit? You know, the fun times you get for attacking random people that pass by." Ryal questioned the woman, speaking to her without giving it much thought.

Sheryl's face remained unchanged as the remark left the young fighter's mouth. His sense of humour didn't seem to really affect her, nor did she take it negatively, but merely acknowledged his statement. "As expected of you to show such confidence in your abilities. I'll make sure I'll rub your face into the dirt this time, and hear my name be called into the finals while your groupies can cry about whatever the fuck you're going on about."

Ryal simply chuckled in response to her retort, all too familiar to her condescending nature. Maybe having a rematch with this woman would be worth it. He never minded a little bit of "seizing each other up" before getting into the heat of battle. Hell, the audience's mind-numbing shouts get drifted into small play when the fight begins. That's when instinct kicks in and your five senses become enveloped into the match.

"Well, all I can really say is good luck. We're here to simply compete, am I right?" Ryal pointed out, which was partially a lie considering the staff's ridiculous decision of introducing a dragon ball to add to the rewards with bandits and people plotting to let the world die from an alien invasion competing, which meant that Ryal now has another reason to be there.

Sheryl was taken back slightly from his comment, somewhat surprised to hear mutual respect towards a person like herself. It was odd, and she can't recall the last time a person complimented her without being forced to. She remained steady however, and kept her emotions hidden from her physical attitude.

"Now let the match begin!"

Now it's time.

Much like the previous match, Ryal displayed a softer style as opposed to Sheryl's harder style. She had her fists clenched together like a rock, and her stance seemed very offensive. There was a difference between her style of fighting that stands out from other hard styles, and that was her lack of conservatism and displayed an enormous amount of experience. This was unique, and rare to find in hard styles.

Neither fighter moved from their position, oddly enough. Despite the bandit's fighting stance being designed for an attack, she didn't move her position. Did she have something in mind?

Soon enough, his opponent started the brawl off with a quick energy wave. Ryal quickly side stepped the attack, only to find out the Sheryl had disappeared.

Suddenly, the blond fighter jolted forward from a bone-shattering high side kick, tumbling straight to the ground beneath him. Ryal instantly rolled over onto his back and leaped up to his feet. He raised an eyebrow at her, unable to see why she was using an offensive stance just a few seconds ago.

A grin formed on her face as she watched the young man raise his brow, "Moron, I thought even you wouldn't fall for that."

Well there it is, she toyed with him just for that brief moment and read him like a book. How she can spot his weaknesses like that is far beyond him.

Ryal gritted his teeth, but refrained himself from charging forward. He knew well that doing that was simply repeating a mistake that Celeria made, which was attack and pray.

So the warrior immediately shot a ki blast at the ground in front of himself, shooting up dust that kicked up at the robotic armed fighter. Using the quick time he has available, he shot himself forward and fired an elbow strike towards her nose, landing successfully. She was knocked back by the hit, stumbling back from the power. Ryal followed up with a hooking kick and aimed for the side of the head, which Sheryl ducked under successfully. Sheryl then countered with a quick jab, and Ryal swayed his head to the side of her fist, returning with a palm strike to her chin. The bandit was fired back from the strike, though threw her feet up which caught Ryal's chin, causing him to jolt back from the hit.

Upon being hit by the palm strike, Sheryl was sent flying, though she managed to touch the ground with her hands and propel herself a few feet into the air, just enough to land back on her feet. Immediately, she rushed back at Ryal to quickly close the gap, and threw a barrage of punches directed towards Ryal's face.

The male fighter managed to move out of the way of the incoming punches, only catching few of the incoming strikes with glancing blows, barely even fazing the defending fighter. Ryal then caught weakness of Sheryl's assault, and delivered a rapid series of front kicks to her mid-section area, and landing a final blow to her stomach with a turn side kick, sending his opponent flying back several feet. Sheryl was unable to recover, and hit the ground like a rock.

Ryal didn't let a second go to waste and leaped right over to Sheryl, though she immediately jumped to her feet. Once the 2 fighters were within melee distance, Ryal shot a roundhouse kick towards her head, only to find his opponent ducked right underneath the kick. Sheryl pressed her hands on the ground to maintain her balance as she bent backwards to the point where her head was almost touching the ground. She launched a high lifting kick towards Ryal's chest, sending the blond lad vertical into the sky.

Sheryl then bent herself forward and kept a steady eye on Ryal as he was fired into the air, and jumped off after the combatant. Within a fraction of a moment, the 2 warriors were already dozens of feet into the air, and Sheryl was already at Ryal's level of altitude. The tall man was already recovered at this point, and shot into his fighting stance the instant he spotted Sheryl next to him, only to find her wearing an evil smile on her lips, as if she had achieved something great.

Ryal quickly realized that this was no time for thinking, but only fighting. He launched a barrage of kicks and punches, mostly made of up of simple straight punches and front kicks, occasionally pulling off a roundhouse or twisting kick to catch her off guard. The scar-faced woman seems to have dodged these strikes with ease, causing Ryal to only try harder as they fought in mid-flight.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you suck at flying?" Sheryl questioned him; dodging each passing punch or kick may it be close or far off. None of them seemed to even faze her as some of them even brushed against her hair.

Instantly, Ryal halted his assault after hearing Sheryl's question, taking in the thought of his poor flight abilities.

"_Shit, she found out about that too?" _Ryal thought.

Ryal immediately began to fly back to the ground as soon as he possibly could, but received an incoming axe kick to the top of his head, ultimately sending the fighter head first to the ground like a meteorite. Upon landing, the blond warrior ricocheted off of the tile floor and fell again, this time keeping him on the ground. Moments later, Sheryl came in and landed a few feet away from him, expecting to win by knock out. Ryal didn't seem to be moving a muscle.

Finally, she got him back after 4 months. The sensation of being victorious over the damned man was at last, finally come. Halleluiah it's over, and now she can proudly state that everyone she had ever encountered her in a fight, ended up losing in the end. He was a tough bastard too, and plagued her mind for months after he taught her that "lesson." like it actually meant something. To her eyes, it's all bullshit, and didn't mean a single thing. You live to win, and losers get the wrong end of the deal.

Yet she saw it happen.

That man got up again, just like he did months ago. Even if all of his bones were broken, he still got up. When will this guy just lose already? I've fought Saiya-jin veterans that don't have the kind of skin he does. Is he even human?

Ryal slowly but steadily climbed up to his feet, heavily damaged from the previous kick and the landing. He stared Sheryl straight in the eye after regaining his posture, and mercy clearly didn't show in those eyes.

"…You honestly think I'm done after a hit like that?" He questioned her in a lower, more serious tone. Blood spilled down from the bottom of his bangs, and ran down the right side of his face. He stared her down in a menacing way that acted like a totally different animal.

"My father would be disappointed in me if I was defeated like that, because he trained me to become the best fighter to could ever be… So I won't go down yet, not by a long shot!" Ryal exclaimed, sliding into his fighting stance.

Sheryl charged forward without word, with the space between the two fighters waning rapidly. She launched forward, and threw several punches comprised of hooks, uppercuts and straight punches. Ryal rolled along with the punch, managing move out of the way of many. Soon enough he threw off his own strikes towards her direction, directed at various points of the body.

The female bandit halted her assault of punches and shot a front kick towards the man's direction. Ryal leaned back to avoid the incoming kick, and countered by launching a front leg side kick to her mid-section. Sheryl caught the blow and doubled over from the strike, indicating Ryal to lean forward and fire off a forearm inward strike to the jaw. Sheryl caught the blow using her own arm to minimize the damage, and follow up with a swift reverse roundhouse kick, planting her foot successfully on the male's cheek. Ryal was blown back far from the kick, but ricocheted himself high into the air.

Oh how familiar this was, giving Ryal the feeling of advantage. It was this moment he realised that he needed to do better, which was exactly was he did back then. It was possible then, and it's possible now.

As Ryal was boosted into the air, he folded his left hand firmly over top of his right, and positioned his hands at his hips. The blond warrior began to focus his ki into his palms. As seconds went by, his hands began to glow in a red aura. Soon enough, petit sparks of red lightning emitted from the point where he focused his ki, which grew in power consistently.

He was ready. Let's see how this woman can handle another one of these.

"Reddo… KYANON!"

Ryal shot his hands forward out in front of him, which was facing towards Sheryl's spot on the ring. A large, red ball of energy formed in front of the warrior's palms. Seconds later, an energy wave shot out of the large ball that Ryal created, spiraling down towards the small figure that is the bandit herself.

Sheryl smiled at his attempt to defeat her using such a technique. Did he honestly think that she would repeat the same mistake that plagued her for months?

The scar-faced female leaped into high into the air faster than the speed of sound, avoiding the explosion of the attack by a hair. Smoke kicked up from the impact, which practically covered the entire ring with debris reached dozens of feet into the air.

Sheryl immediately rushed in on her opponent, using her full might to take the man down before he can fully recover from his own attack. A fraction of a second passed, and Sheryl was already above Ryal, almost within melee range.

"That'll never work on me fool! I'd never make that mistake twice!" The female fighter screamed as she attempted to fire a hammer fist to his head.

Ryal simply smirked from her reckless charge, and raised his head to bring her his full attention, "Who said I was trying to pull off the same stunt?"

Suddenly, another energy wave fired straight out of the large red orb that Ryal formed himself to attack Sheryl, though this time fired upwards, directed at his current opponent. The scar faced fighter got caught off guard right then and there, and another explosion took place. This indicated Ryal to minimize the red ball of energy that he formed and covered his own face to protect himself from the point blank explosion.

Of course, his father wasn't a fool when it came to creating techniques. Who would have thought that the Reddo Kyanon can fire several beams at once?

Ryal quickly flew to the other side of the air space directly above the ring, giving himself at least a thirty foot distance between the two brawlers, and waited for the smoke to dissipate into the air.

Seconds passed slowly, with each one being apparent and clear. The explosion finally let off, revealing Sheryl covered in even more scratches and bruises than she already was beforehand. What seemed strange though, was the smile that was placed on her lips.

"_After taking a hit like that… She's still smiling?" _

"We're both flying again… How convenient!" Sheryl exclaimed.

Ryal's eyes widened, and his pupils shrunk from listening to her claim. Reluctantly, Ryal trailed his eyes towards the ground beneath himself.

They must have been at least 50 feet into the air. Damn, that was the last thing he needed. He should have landed on the ring when he had the chance.

Ryal brought his eyes back to his opponent, only to discover that she was merely inches away from him.

She brought both of her hands together, and landed a double hammer fist to the top of his head, which sent the fighter crashing to the ground.

Only this time, he landed outside of the ring.

"Sheryl wins by ring out! She will be advancing to the finals!"

_"I want you to go and avenge our friends. They're seeking for the dragon balls without fail, and they need to stop, and be brought to justice. I strongly believe you're the only one who could pull it off."_

Those words rummaged through his head, which pretty much concluded that he failed. He wasn't capable of pulling it off himself. He just lost to a woman whom he had less trouble with than fighting with Eton. How was he of all people suppose stop the Cranes from hunting the down the dragon balls and use it for themselves? Let alone protect the Earth from a bunch of aliens.

He was a mere human, gifted or not. Saiya-jins have more fighting potential, Namekian's have more potential, even Kento managed to achieve something that took Ryal years to do. What's the point in trying when you just failed what he had practically promised to do? Not only is he incapable of keeping the planet safe, or even coming close to stopping what the Cranes desire, he wasn't a good friend either. What kind of person makes a promise that is outside their own reach? He literally told a lie to his friend. Actually, his _best _friend for that matter.

"_Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars…And what do you do if you miss? You shoot again."_

That's it; you get up and keep going even if you miss. Missing in itself can help a person grow. Whether he'd fail what he trained months for, or lacking the capabilities to do something that is mandatory for the survival of the human race, or even failing to keep a promise with a friend. What matters, is you fight for improvement, and eventually achieve the things that have yet to be achieved.

"_That's what my father would tell me right about now."_

Ryal slowly picked himself up from where he landed, standing upright before turning his head towards the ring.

It appeared to be empty.

The young warrior sighed and turned towards the roof of the temple and dragged his feet towards it. Once he was up against the wall, he leaped up onto the roof and sat down next to Kento, who seemed to have a wide grin on his face. Questioningly, Ryal gave him an odd look.

"What's up, Kento?"

"That was an amazing fight! That's what!" The Kamesennin student exclaimed.

Ryal's eyes opened up a little upon hearing his friend cheer for him, even though he was defeated. Of course, his friend was well known for constantly being astonished by practically everything he did. It wasn't much of a surprise now that he realised it. Unfortunately though, that doesn't change the raw facts.

"So what? I still lost, and our chances of collecting the dragon balls have gone much lower." He responded harshly, fully understanding the reason behind such a thing. It was the only way to keep the Earth safe sufficiently.

Kento let out a sigh and laid back down on the rooftop, resting his head on top of the palm of his hands, "Well I didn't think of that. We still have Zejuto though, right?"

The kid? He wasn't even close to Eton's level. If Zarx had difficulty landing a single _hit _on him, who in their right mind would think that Zejuto can somehow win? Not to mention, he would have to fight Sheryl even if he did somehow win. The only people that would think otherwise are ignorant!

"He doesn't have a chance. He's weaker than all of us; even his sister is stronger."

Kento simply shrugged in response, "Let's just wake him up anyways, he needs to prepare for his next fight anyway."

"_More like get his ass handed to him." _Ryal thought. Judging by what he did to Zarx, he either held back a lot when he fought the blond warrior, or managed to become immensely stronger. Perhaps both.

Reluctantly, Ryal shook the teen Saiya-jin awake, causing him to yawn and stretch his arms and legs. He slowly sat up and rubbed his left eye, adjusting to the sunlight that hit his eyes as he looked around. Eventually he noticed the blood that practically covered the side of Ryal's face, raising a brow in reaction to his appearance.

"Ryal, did you already fight?" He asked.

The blond fighter gave him a small nod, "Yup, now it's your turn to fight."

Without question, the young Saiya-jin leaped up to his feet and began to stroll off towards the ring, "Well, wish me luck then."

**- 5 minutes later –**

Zejuto was already doing his stretches in preparation to the match on the ring, making sure he was completely prepared to have what will be likely to be the toughest fight he will ever have up until that point in his life. He stretched his legs, arms, back, neck – you name it.

Eton had beaten both Ryal and Zarx at this point, which is turning him into a nerve wreck. He wasn't sure how well he'd fare, but one thing is for certain. He stood no chance against Eton. That guy was like a tank; forget about his sheer power and speed. He left his battles, looking like he didn't even break a sweat. Even worse, he didn't show much mercy.

At the same time, he was pumped to have the chance to fight a fighter with far more experience, strength, speed, stamina, and even technique. Fighting was… no. Fighting _is _a huge part of his life. Whether the person he's up against is 10 times stronger than the absolute pinnacle of his abilities, or simply on his own level of strength, Zejuto will never decline the chance to engage in battle. To him, a fight is a living entity of itself. It begins, and it ends. It has its climaxes, it has its ups and downs, and lastly, it has its results.

The full blood Saiya-jin finished off his stretches by rotating his hips both ways, and shaking his legs around before jumping up and down a couple of times just to make sure he was nice and loose. Zejuto turned to see the other end of the ring, and grinned when he saw Eton had already positioned himself on the other side of the ring. It won't last long, but he'll sure give the guy a run for his money.

The announcer took his position on the sidelines, with a microphone in hand. It looks like the match is just about to begin.

"Let the match begin!"

It was just how he predicted it.

Zejuto was the first to make his charge, letting out his biggest war cry as he ran after the demi Saiya-jin. When the teen reached within striking distance, he threw his first punch towards the man's gut. Instantly, Eton had jumped right out of the way of the punch, as expected.

Zejuto zipped his body around to see Eton land a few feet away, and fire off a strong gust of wind powered by his ki. The teen threw his arms up in the form of an 'X' to remain steady in the strong wind. Cries from the audience behind him let out screams from the sheer power of this man. Surely he was a true warrior let it be good or bad.

Zejuto slowly brought both of his palms forward, facing them in the direction of Eton. He then fired off a yellow energy wave directed at his current opponent, whom dashed off to the side just in the neck of time. Rapidly, Zejuto persisted after him and followed up with a jumping turn side kick towards the skull, which was blocked firmly by Eton. The young fighter didn't stop there however.

He quickly flipped over the man after committing his kick, and landed inches behind him. Zejuto then drove a full power upset bunch dead centre into his back, forcing Eton to arch his back from the impact. Before he could follow up with another strike though, Eton forced an elbow strike towards Zejuto's forehead, making him tumble to the ground in the aftermath.

Quickly, Zejuto tried to get right back to his feet, but Eton clenched his hand around the teen's hair. Zejuto gritted his teeth in pain as he was grabbed by the man, letting out shouts and screams whilst being lifted off the ground by his hair.

"Bastard! Why are you grabbing my hair!?" Zejuto screamed, throwing kicks and punches while flailing around.

Eton, who appeared to be taking the hits head on without fazing much started to walk towards the edge of the ring. Once he reached the grass area, he simply tossed Zejuto onto the grass, ultimately winning by ringout.

"Because I haven't got the time to play around with you." The man responded before turning around to leave.

"It appears Eton advances into the finals by ring out!" The announcer exclaimed, earning a crowd erupting in applause, though there were plenty of boo's as well due to the short-lived fight.

Ryal and Kento sighed in relief simultaneously, simply glad to see that Zejuto ended up in the path of the best case scenario. He didn't lose a limb, get impaled, knocked out, or even bleed a little! What a miracle.

Disappointingly, Zejuto ended up arriving on the rooftop within moments after his loss. He looked as if their whole trip had gone to waste, and going there in the first place was simply redundant and well, useless.

"Can we go home now? I'm bored." Zejuto whined, crossing his arms whilst carrying a disgusted look.

"No." Kento and Ryal answered in unison.

**- Meanwhile –**

Another break time was allotted for the time being before the finals were to be executed, so Eton went on to the open area outside of the temple grounds to meet up with his former guardian for the trip. He wasn't there to have fun or anything, or whatever it was. He was to be the man carrying out the objective strangely enough. Usually there were people to do that for the headmaster, but it looks like they want this to be done peacefully. Eton was the best man to carry this out, for the simple reason of winning the tournament to earn the prizes.

The Crane fighters are generally sent out to do objectives like these to gain power, whilst Eton himself would go around and supervise them. Others see it has, "Eton is just there to lick the sensei's boots" or whatnot, but he never cared for such a thing. He was there to simply do his job, nothing more, nothing less.

The man arrived at the outer walls of the temple, and leaned up against the wall. He should be here any moment now. There were a bit of news to be informed, which may change the plans a little bit.

As expected, the old man arrived with a couple of groupies tagging along to ensure his own defense of course.

"Master, I have acquired news regarding the rebellious Namek." Eton stated formally.

The old man halted his troops to where they stood before he strolled over beside Eton, "And what may that be?"

"The Namek recruited a few allies, evident through their positions on a particular location on the rooftop of the temple. They are known as Ryal, Celeria, Zejuto, and Kento. Zarx is the Namekian, and anything else is unknown due to little or no evidence. Their last names can be recovered by looking through the tournament records. Note that some of these people are identified as Saiya-jins or trained by legendary fighters. I don't recommend sending our lower class fighters to carry out a mission if implemented." Eton explained thoroughly, making sure he even added a few factors into this situation. The demi Saiya-jin knew well that his master loved hearing details.

The old man bit his lip as his thought process began, planning out his next move.

"Who are you up against next?" He asked.

"I believe it is a woman named Sheryl, sir." Eton replied.

"Is she in any way associated with the ones you just mentioned beforehand?"

Eton took a moment to think about the recent question. Judging by the fight, they did have a previous encounter according to the directional microphone. So the demi Saiya-jin simply nodded his head, "Yes sir."

"Alright, kill her on stage quickly and take the dragon ball. We don't want to risk another possible rebel." The old Crane master directed before he began to stroll off.

"But sir… I thought you said it was supposed to be peaceful?" Eton questioned him.

The old geezer turned around and set a glare at him, "Are you questioning me?"

Eton stood silent, but merely acknowledged his rhetorical question.

The old master sighed and turned his back on the half Saiya-jin, "Looks like we'll have to take you to the doctor's office and give you another shot." The man muttered. Eton simply rolled his eyes at the man as he walked off. He never understood why he was given shots on a weekly bases. They were nano machines which were usually used to enhance a person's physical abilities, but they only seem to mutter on about it was when he questioned his master's decision, which he does rarely. Do his actions with those higher in the Crane hierarchy have to associate with his own physical abilities? Surely not. Perhaps he should maybe, do an experiment at some point.

The highly skilled fighter simply dropped the idea in mind and went over to the ring in preparation for the next objective in mind. It was straightforward, so it didn't really bother him. Killing was easy, and so was stealing. The only difference there was of course, is the fact that a whole crowd gets to see it happen.

**- 20 minutes later –**

"Will the finalists Sheryl and Eton please enter the ring!"

There we go, looks like break time is over. Now she can win the money and go home. Her name will be planted everywhere in the city and everyone will know her for being a world renowned fighter. She'll be filthy rich, and her next mission may end up battling extra-terrestrial life. After all, who is there to win against once she wins the world tournament? Maybe the name _Sheryl Han _will be known across the entire galaxy! Maybe even the entire universe! Why not? A mere human like her wouldn't win against Saiya-jins, aliens, gifted fighters, but she did in fact, beat them! So if she is capable of defeating opponents far above the level of a normal human, why not the most powerful in the galaxy, or the universe?

Sheryl was a dreamer, and loved to dream about big things. _"It's only a dream." _They said. So she's making this a reality, and she's making progress. Only one more to go before she goes out to kick the living ass out of aliens!

The woman began to take her place in the ring, and face off against the last one who opposes her. Apparently this man was supposed to be something else, but hearing this was common. To her, it didn't mean anything. What mattered was what you actually _did. _

"Oi, Sheryl."

She turned her head around to see the same blond kid with the pony tail. It looks like he dried the blood off of his face so he doesn't get a reaction. Figures, the crowd can be a bother.

"What is it?" She said gruffly.

"Whatever you do, _don't lose to him._ I don't care how you win, just don't let him." Ryal insisted in a stern voice.

"I don't plan on it." She responded flatly before turning back to Eton. _"Geez, what's his problem?" _the scar-faced bandit thought.

"Let the fight begin!" The announcer cheered.

The announcer gave the call, and Eton didn't waste a single second. He raised a finger, and fired off a thin beam, yellow in colour. The beam travelled at breath-taking speed, making the speed of a bullet move like a snail in comparison.

Sheryl wasn't even in her fighting stance, and the beam fired through her stomach, causing her eyes to widen at the sudden attack. She couldn't even witness it before she got impaled.

Then the first second had ticked away.

Sheryl spat blood onto the ground and fell over unconscious, immediately causing the audience to erupt into complaint and cries of grievance and hate. Eton turned his head to the announcer, aiming his finger at the man.

"Give me the dragon ball."

Ryal turned around to see what unfolded, widening his eyes by the scene displaying before his eyes. Instantly, the blond fighter rushed over to the announcer, who seemed to have turned blue from the sheer intimidation of the man. He couldn't blame the poor guy either.

The fighter rushed in front of the announcer, and held his arms out.

"I can't let you do that." Ryal stated firmly, setting his eyes on the Crane pupil before him.

"Move out of the way, or I'll be forced to kill you…."

"Just kill him, Eton. He is a rebel" A voice intervened from behind the Crane fighter.

Eton turned his head to see his former master walk onto the tile ring, "…Master?"

"Kill him."

"No! I won't let you do such a thing!" Celeria interrupted, running in front of Ryal. The taller combatant drifted his eyes towards the shorter girl that stood directly in front of him.

"C-Celeria?"

"None of you are gonna lay your rotten hands on the dragon ball!" Kento shouted, running onto the tile ring, followed by Zejuto who ran directly behind him.

"I.. I don't even have the dragon ball!" The announcer exclaimed to defend his position, aiming to avoid such a conflict.

Ryal immediately turned his head towards the announcer, "Do you know where it is?"

"I have no clue! The staff has it!"

"Scumbag! I thought you were supposed to have it ready for the end of the battle!" The old master spat before turning towards Eton.

"Eton! Find the damn ball!" The master insisted.

Eton nodded at the man's request, "Yes sir."

"Zejuto, Kento, take her body and get out of here! Zejuto, show Kento the way out of here. We'll meet up with you." Ryal demanded desperately before turning towards Celeria who stood right beside him.

"Celeria, come with me."

She nodded without a question and waited for him to make his move. Ryal didn't waste a single second and immediately ran towards the temple's staff area. Upon entrance, he found several people inside working on their errands. The tall fighter didn't know what they were doing, nor did he really care either. All that was on mind was the dragon ball.

The blond lad tapped a one of the staff people on the back, which led to the man turning around to see Ryal and Celeria directly.

"May I help you?" The man asked.

"Do you have any clue on the whereabouts' of the dragon ball?"

"It was stolen by the green guy a while back. We couldn't retrieve it so we were punished for it by doing work after hours."

Ryal sighed in relief upon listening to the man speak his words. What a guy Zarx was, thank goodness for what he did.

"Thanks for telling us sir." Ryal finished before barging out of the exit followed by Celeria, not even giving the man a chance to reply.

"Ugh, kids are crazy these days." The middle aged man muttered under his breath, continuing his errands.

**- 30 minutes later – **

Zarx was found lying up against tree, staring off into the sunset that peaked over the vast ocean. Kento and Zejuto were already resting on the ground with Sheryl lying unconscious, though treated thankfully. Her wounds were covered up from where she was impaled just half an hour ago.

Ryal spotted the group of fighters at their meet up location, "There, everyone's together now." Ryal said under his breath. Celeria appeared to be silent throughout the whole ordeal. However, she actually spoke this time.

"Well, everyone is still around. Nobody really died or anything!" She exclaimed, trying to cheer up Ryal who was in a sour mood for being stressed out. He simply smiled from her statement, "Yeah, I think this tournament benefited us if anything." He added.

Zejuto jumped to his feet once he saw the last two fighters approached the scene, and stretched his limbs around to adjust his body, "There, everyone is here. So what do we do now, Zarx?"

The Namekian raised his head from under the tree, trailing his eyes across all of the fighters, also acknowledging the single boat they had. The man had a plan, though it wasn't time to execute it. It wasn't the right time yet.

"We'll head home and take continue our regular routine for a week. After that, it'll be time for us to lead the rebellion. We shall be going on a full search for the remaining dragon balls."

* * *

End of Chapter 11.

End of first arc.

There we have it folks! I shall now present the current battle levels for this arc. So what do you guys think so far? Leave it in a review below and have a nice day!

P.S. If this chapter wasn't divided into parts, it would be 11k words long! Quite personally, I'm not up for editing an 11k word long chapter.

**Battle levels for the Tenkaichi Budokai (Chapters 9-11)**

**Ryal: 270**

**Kento: 115**

**Sheryl: 270**

**Zejuto: 190**

**Celeria: 205**

**Eton: 360**

**Zarx: 280**

**Curtis: 45**


End file.
